Slow Healing
by Tsugath
Summary: Gambit's cousin has come to stay at the mansion. He obliviously doesn't have the same cajun luck. 4 Chapters added.
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: Just for the lawyers, I, Tsugath, do not own, nor probably will I ever be lucky enough to own the rights to the X-Men. Now back to the more important stuff.

A quick explanation of the character usage in the story:  
" " Verbal communication  
/ Telepathic communication  
'' Someone holding a mental conversation with themselves.  
( )Empathic or emotion-based conversation. You'll understand what I mean when you read it in the later chapters.

**PROLOGUE **

Etienne looked out the window at the other X-Men playing a variation of soccer out on the lawn of the mansion. Had it only been six months since he had come to live here?

He flopped down on the couch, wishing for the umpteenth time that he could be outside playing with everyone else. He had tried, but his cousin Remy had given him THE LOOK and then Kitty had politely asked what he thought he was doing since Dr. McCoy hadn't even taken the cast off his right arm yet. He had just sighed in defeat and come back inside. Currently he was trying to get interested in a fantasy novel by one of his favorite authors, but the thought of telepathic Companions and Heralds with exceptional gifts just didn't hold the same fascination when you were surrounded by those kinds of people every day.

He thought back to the events that had brought him here. Not that he really wanted to dwell on his own torture, but it had been a blessing in disguise. Since his arm had been so smashed that it was unlikely he'd ever regain full use of it, his Uncle had given him semi-permanent leave from the Thieves guild back home in New Orleans. He was like his cousin in that respect, neither of them could really return to the lives they had led previously. His thoughts turned dark. Of course Remy was still a great thief with all his skills still intact and his body hale and healthy. 'Life just ain't fair sometimes.'

He hated feeling indebted to his cousin. Gambit had led the other X-Men to the place where Etienne had been left for dead in New York City. When they had brought him back to the mansion, Dr. McCoy had put his broken body back together again. After he had regained consciousness, Gambit and Rogue had stopped the ensuing guild war between the New York and New Orleans Thieves Guilds by proving no one from New York was responsible. He knew they had found the guilty person, but he didn't know exactly what had happened to the culprit. Gambit had never offered the information, other than to say he had handled it.

He looked down at his hands. His mutant ability had developed and been forced to mature from all the pain he had experienced during his abduction. The small empathic ability he had been born with was a thousand times stronger, till he could sense any strong emotion unless he was shielded. Even with the strongest mental shields he could muster, if he touched someone he could still tell exactly what they were feeling. It was a scary thought. He laughed to himself. When he had been recovering from his injuries, the drugs he was on made it impossible for him to shield at all. Either Professor Xavier or Jean had to be in the house at all times to make sure he didn't turn the rest of the X-Men into quivering balls of pain and dizziness. There had been a couple accidents, but everyone had forgiven him since he couldn't help it.

He heard someone come in the room behind him and turned, seeing Dr. McCoy in the doorway. "Bonjour Henri!" He smiled at the furry doctor who had become a close friend since his sojourn in the Medical Bay.

"Hello Etienne. I had some time and wondered if you would like to see if that cast is ready to come off."

Etienne jumped off the couch faster than a rabbit. "Dat would be great." He followed Hank downstairs.

Hank laughed. "I also have some good news. My friend, the orthopedic surgeon who helped put your arm back together sent a little present over for you."

Etienne looked surprised. "What is it?"

"It's called a bone stimulator. It should help the bones in your arm repair themselves faster even if you don't have to stabilize them with a cast anymore." He took out a saw. "Now hold still while I take this off."

Etienne looked down at the white flesh of his arm. He turned it so that he could see the scars where the screws had been used to hold the larger pieces of bone together.

"Okay, lets take a couple X-rays of it to see how you're doing." McCoy moved the machine and took a few pictures, moving to the computer monitor to view them.

"Well, it looks like everything is knit together enough so that you don't need the full cast." He looked up. "You still won't be able to play football or soccer I'm afraid."

Etienne grinned at him. "At least I can reach all the places it's been itching."


	2. Late Night in the Kitchen

Disclaimer: I do not own X-men, boo-hoo .

V.V.V.V.V.V.V.V.V

Etienne leaned back in his chair and massaged his arm where the stimulator Beast had implanted two days ago was making his bones ache. The stimulator generated a weak electromagnetic field that somehow stimulated his bones to heal faster than normal. The only problem was if he took painkillers, then the control he had on his empathy slipped. Last time he had tried it, he had ended up crying over bowls of death-by-chocolate ice cream with Kitty while she was telling him about her latest fight with Kurt. It wouldn't have been so embarrassing but everyone who walked into the kitchen also started crying as he projected her sorrow to them. He would never live that down. Now all the girls in residence thought of him as a great sounding board for all their guy problems. Not that he minded spending time with the ladies, but there were some things he just did NOT want to know. Next t'ing y' know dey want me t' attend a slumber party t' discuss what guys like while watching chick-flicks. He shook at the mere thought of something that horrible.

He turned around and looked at his clock. The bright, cheery numbers showed 3AM. Almost everyone was asleep by now. Except for Logan, who seemed to take a weird delight in wandering around the mansion and catching everyone else out of their rooms. He sighed. He had been online hoping one of his buddies would show up to chat or play a game, but no one had appeared. Since his hand and arm had healed enough for him to type, he had been spending a lot of time online, not that it was unusual even before the kidnapping. Online, no one cared that he was a mutant, or what he looked like. He was accepted just as he was. He looked in his mirror as he passed it on the way to the door. The cuts he had suffered during his kidnapping had healed, but he still bore the scars as testament to his suffering. A patch, making him look slightly like a pirate, covered his missing left eye. He sighed, wondering if any girl would ever look at him for something other than relationship advice.

He limped slowly into the kitchen, not surprised when he saw his cousin at the table drinking a beer and staring morosely out the window. "Logan's gona have a fit when he finds out y' stole his beer again."

Remy turned and smirked at his younger cousin. "What he don' know, won't hurt me. 'Sides, who's here gona tell 'im?"

Etienne smirked back, lowering his shields just enough to determine that the person coming down the hallway was Logan. "He's gona be here in bout one minute so y' better do something wi' de evidence. He almost laughed out loud at the expression on Gambit's face as he attempted to finish the rest of the bottle while jumping for the trashcan at the same time. Somehow his cousin made it back in his seat just as Logan walked into the room.

"So what are you two doing here?" Logan sniffed the air and stared at a innocent looking Gambit suspiciously. "It's 3AM."

Etienne thought fast and answered before his cousin could open his mouth. "We were talking about girls."

Logan walked to the refrigerator and grabbed a beer before sitting in a seat across from Remy. "Good luck. I'm older than both of you put together and I still don't have them figured out."

Etienne moved over and got himself the glass of water that he had originally come to the kitchen for. He sighed. "I'm going t' scream if one more fille tells me all 'bout her relationship problems." He joined the other two at the table. "Not that I mind spending time w'a belle fille, but de older ones all taken."

His cousin smirked. "So is dat de real reason y' cryin w' Kitty de other day?"

At that point even Logan was laughing, so Etienne just rolled his eyes. "Y' try being stuck inside w' out even being able t' go t'town for five months an' see how y' like it." Both Gambit and Logan instantly sobered, knowing exactly what Etienne meant. When he had been abducted, the torturing had made his mutant gift mature and develop, leaving him with such powerful empathy that anyone coming within range literally felt the pain and emotions he was feeling. His control over his mental shields was still to weak to allow him to be among large groups of people without the presence of Jean or Professor Xavier to shield him.

Logan cleared his throat and took another swig of his beer. "I hear we're getting a new student in a couple of days."

Both boys looked at him. "A femme o' a homme?"

Logan took another sip of the beer. "A girl if that's what you're asking. She's a patient of a friend of McCoy's and the Professor agreed for her to come here."

Etienne studied Logan while finishing up his water. "What's wrong with her?"

Logan shrugged and threw his now empty bottle in the trash. "Don't know. You'll have to be like everyone else and find out when she gets here." He walked to the door and then stopped, turning around to stare at the two still at the table. "Oh, and Gumbo, next time I catch you drinking my beer, your going to have Danger Room sessions with me at 5AM for a week." The look on Gambit's face was priceless, but it was the sound of Etienne's laughter that followed Wolverine down the hallway.


	3. Back into Med Bay

Disclaimer: I don't own the X-men, but if I did I'd buy everyone a Philly cheese steak sandwich. Yum!

V.V.V.V.V.V.V.V

Etienne rolled over and got cautiously out of the bed. He had definitely slept on his right arm sometime during the night, because it was throbbing in pain. He gritted his teeth before letting out his breath. He stood up and made his way to the shower, hoping the warm water would help work out the kinks.

Getting out of the shower, he mentally groaned. He couldn't even lift his arm up to shoulder height, and that was a bad sign. McCoy had warned him when he had put the stimulator in, saying if the pain got too bad to go to the Infirmary immediately to check for complications. Etienne had thought there would be no problems since the past few days had passed without incident. He made his way carefully down the stairs towards the kitchen, having to stop on the landing when the jarring began shooting pains up his arm. He closed his eyes and leaned against the wall.

"Hi Etienne, better hurry if you want any breakfast." Jubilee's voice caused him to look down at her where she stood at the foot of the steps. "Hey, are you okay?" He shook his head, feeling the pain begin to spread across his chest. He couldn't breathe, and his heart felt like it was going to pound its way out of his chest. He sat suddenly, his legs unwilling to hold him up. "Dr. McCoy, Dr. McCoy! Etienne needs you on the stairs!" Jubilee began yelling, running back towards the kitchen only to be pushed aside when the doctor came flying out, followed closely by Logan and Bobby who had been eating a late breakfast.

McCoy came up the stairs and immediately took his pulse. "The pulse is sky high, and his pupils are dilated." He turned to Logan. "It looks like he's going into shock. Can you carry him while I run ahead?" Logan nodded and scooped the younger man up, turning to walk down the stairs.

Jubilee looked at a worried Bobby. "We need to find Gambit and let him know." Bobby nodded. "I'll check his room and outside if you'll take the garage. If his bike is gone ask Jean to contact him to get back here." Jubilee nodded as they ran their separate ways.

In the Infirmary, McCoy slapped EKG leads on Etienne as soon as Logan put him down on the bed. "What happened?" He looked at the young Cajun who was desperately trying to breathe through the pain enveloping his body. "Pain's in chest, can't breathe." Etienne could barely gasp out the words, he could feel and see blackness starting to crowd his vision. He could feel his control slipping as the pain ate slowly away at it bit by bit. Dr. McCoy looked at the readout from the EKG machine. "It looks like the stimulator in his arm is causing his heart's electrical rhythms to short circuit." He turned to the medicine cabinet behind him and started grabbing medications. "Logan, grab a saline IV bag from the cabinet to your left."

The door slid open and Jubilee rushed in, followed in quick succession by Scott, Remy, Jean, Kurt and Rogue. "What going on?" She yelled over the mad beeping of the machines.

Logan handed the IV bag to McCoy and turned to the kids standing in the doorway. "The boy's having a heart attack, so we need some room." He was interrupted by an exclamation from Beast, who had the misfortune of touching Etienne just as his fragile hold on his empathic abilities slipped. McCoy was caught up in the other's pain, unable to do anything, even to let go.

Etienne felt the pain build until the blackness stole his vision. He felt his shields fall and for an instant, he could feel the emotions of everyone within a 2-mile radius, from his cousin who was panicking with worry to someone approaching whose pain was as great as his. His last conscious thought was sorrow that he couldn't ease the other's pain because his was too great.

As Logan was reaching out, Jean reacted almost instantly. "Don't touch him, with Etienne's empathic ability you'll get sucked in too. Somebody go get the Professor, I can't get through the block the pain is causing." Bobby, who was in the back of the group, turned to head down the hallway when he saw the Professor behind him.

"I'm here Jean. Everyone, let me through please." The assembled X-Men moved aside to allow the Professor to approach the medical bay and it's occupants. Everyone could literally hear McCoy sigh as the Professor used his powers to shield Etienne. McCoy looked at the Professor. "I want to give him the same pain killer he was on earlier along with nitroglycerine." The Professor nodded. "Jean and I will be able to keep him shielded until he can recover once his pain level decreases. He will be disappointed to loose the stimulator though." Beast grabbed the appropriate medicines and a new syringe. "Yes, but better that than go through this again. His heart might be young, but it won't stand too much of this, and neither will mine."

After the injections, Etienne's heart rate began to return to normal. McCoy approached the other X-Men, "He's currently unconscious and will need to stay in the Infirmary at least over night for observation. I removed the bone stimulator in his arm that seemed to be causing the problem. Hopefully he will be awake in a couple of hours if you guys want to come and keep him company." The younger X-men nodded and began making their way back to the elevator. Gambit stayed where he was, Rogue by his side. "We'd like t'stay an' be here when he wakes up." McCoy looked over at the two of them. "Rogue can stay, but you need a shower to get rid of all that grease first before you can sit in there." Gambit looked down at himself and smiled apologetically. "Sorry, forgot 'bout dat." He touched Rogue on the arm. "Watch 'im fo' me." She nodded, understanding his worry. "Go, hurry up so yah can get back."


	4. A New Student

**Disclaimer**: Not that this is any surprise, but I don't own the X-men.

V.V.V.V.V.V.V

Brooke looked nervously over at Orroro Munroe, the representative of Professor Xavier's school who had met her at the airport.

"You don't have to worry you will be among friends." Storm looked at the younger girl sitting in the passenger seat. She was playing with a loop of string, running through cat's cradle games over and over.

Brooke gave her a slight smile. "I'm just really uncomfortable with people I don't know well." She sighed internally to herself. She had always been that way, but since the attack she got panicky if surrounded to close by strangers. As her shrink had said back home, she had acute agoraphobia.

Storm nodded. "I have heard it said that the best thing to do in that situation is imagine the people you meet in their underclothes. It's supposed to relieve tension."

Brooke just stared openmouthed. "Well, I'll try that then." She had thought Ms. Monroe to be a serious type, but maybe her first impression was mistaken. Just then a large gate came into view and the car stopped to allow Ms. Monroe to input a security code. She just stared as the car was parked in front of the large mansion.

"This is the Institute. Professor Xavier is inside waiting to meet you."

At that moment, a girl came running through the door. "Storm, like, they just rushed Etienne down to the Infirmary, he was having a heart attack." The other girl stopped and looked at Brooke in surprise. "Oh, hello. You must be the new student."

Brooke watched as Ms. Monroe blanched. "Kitty, can you please take Brooke to the Professor's study while I go check on Etienne?"

Kitty smiled at Brooke. "Sure, I don't mind. Like, do you need help with your bags?"

"No thanks. I've got them."

"Okay, follow me then."

Kitty arrived at the door to the Professors study and opened it. "Like, Professor Xavier is downstairs with everyone else helping with Etienne. Like, make yourself comfortable and he'll be up here as soon as he can."

Brooke waited only a few minutes before an older bald guy in a wheel chair moved into the room. "Ah, Ms. Miller, welcome. I hope you will learn to feel comfortable here."

Brooke looked at the Professor, wondering how much of her story he knew already. She decided to delay. "I heard one of your students was rushed to the medical facility."

He nodded. "Yes, we were treating broken bones in his right arm with a bone-growth stimulator but it appears the magnetic field it generated was interfering with the electrical signals in his heart causing a slight heart arrhythmia. He should not sustain any damage though, and should be on his feet in no time."

She nodded. "That's good to hear." She was getting more nervous by the minute; the walls of the room seemed to be closing in on her.

The Professor looked at his newest student. He already knew her background, and could feel she was getting close to bolting even though she had no where to run. "Brooke, please try to calm down. I do know some of your history. Would you like to know more about of ours?

She nodded and took a couple of deep breaths knowing now was not a good time for a panic attack. "Yes, please."

The Professor nodded. "As you probably already know, I started this school to give mutants a place where they can be safe and interact with each other without having to worry about persecution because their genes are different. We have devoted ourselves to the idea that mutants and humans can eventually live together in peace.

Brooke looked down at the hands in her lap. "That sounds like a utopia Professor; but the majority of utopias exist only in literature." She looked back up at him. "You'll have to forgive me if I'm a bit skeptical, but I've seen first hand what happens when mutants and humans try to live together. People get hurt on both sides." She felt guilty at the words, they raised a pain she would rather forget than relive.

He studied her for a moment. "I understand your feelings and hope you will eventually change your mind. It is my understanding that you remember little from the assault. Did you make any progress with your other doctor back home?"

She shook her head and looked away out the window. "No. He ran the genetic tests and determined I have an active X-gene, but the shock was so great that he thinks I've blocked it out. So what exactly will I be doing here?" She was having the strangest urge to dump all her problems on this poor man. She hadn't even known him for more than ten minutes but she felt like she could trust him.

"It is my understanding that you completed your senior year at your high school, is that true?" The Professor was concerned. He had been told his newest student had suffered significant emotional and physical trauma, and her actions so far had confirmed his hypothesis that she was not dealing with it well if at all. He was subtly influencing her by exuding a calming and trust worthy demeanor, hoping it would help her to unconsciously relax.

Brooke nodded. "Yes. I was accepted to college but then everything happened." At this point she trailed off, looking back down at the ground, trying hard not to cry.

Xavier waited until she looked back up at him, gaining control of her emotions as she did so. "As you know, at the request of your parents, you and I will have daily sessions. Hopefully you will be able to gain a greater understanding of exactly what happened during the time you blacked out. There will be several hours of self-defense training each week, either singly or in a group setting. In addition, you will have assigned chores since everyone here splits duties. Whatever free time you have beyond that is your own as long as you respect your curfew, which for your age group is 2 AM since your older than most of the students. I'm afraid you will have to share a bathroom, but there is a single room available for you to have. We are currently in the process of adding on more space so that should change by the end of summer."

She nodded again, having already been aware of the basics before she left home. "Thank you for your help and for letting me stay here." She stood up and suddenly felt woozy. "Whoa, head rush"

"Are you okay?" The Professor had felt a momentary surge of something as she had stood up. That was highly unusual and he made a mental note to look into it later.

"Yeah I'm fine. Can someone show me to my room?"

"Certainly, dinner should be in about 30 minutes, and you will be able to meet everyone then." He mentally contacted Kitty, who was the closest female X-Man. Can you come back and escort Brooke to her room? She will be staying in the empty room between Jean and Etienne.

V .V. V .V .V .V

Gambit and Rogue had each taken a seat to either side of Etienne's bed in the Med Bay, waiting for him to regain consciousness. Storm had come by as soon as she had gotten back from picking up the new student. The other X-Men had dropped by at different times, lending their unspoken support to their friends.

Rogue looked across the still form. "He'll come through sugah, he's a fighta like you."

Remy ran a hand through his hair. "Gambit knows dat chere, he just can't help but worry."

She wished there was something else she could do or say to make him feel better. It was unusual for her Gambit to be this upset, and she didn't like it one bit. She much preferred the happy go lucky Cajun who was always getting in her way and annoying her. Her Gambit? Where did that come from? She shook her head in denial.

Etienne was floating, there was no other way to describe it. The last thing he remembered was the searing pain and hearing McCoy tell someone, Logan maybe, that he was having a heart attack. I'm only 18; I couldn't have a heart attack yet. Dat must have been some dream. He drifted some more, growing more cognizant of the fact that everything was kind of gray and fuzzy. He could see little points of colored light bobbing around him some brighter than others. He reached out and touched the nearest, a medium sized ball of blue light. He could feel worry and tension, something "told" him it was his cousin. He touched another ball of light, this one a bright cheerful yellow. It "felt" more like Kitty, lots of happiness and optimism. A large ball of indigo caught his attention and he found himself stretching trying to reach it. He cupped it in his hands. De color is belle magnifique. He touched it with a finger and almost screamed at the mass of emotions that pored into him. Anger, pain, fear, hurt and riding over everything was a bottomless loneliness that made him ache.

Rogue and Remy both jerked as Etienne stirred on the bed. "Henri, he be waking!" The three of them watched as Etienne sat up and looked around, not really seeing where he was. Before they could do anything he began ripping the EKG leads off himself, trying to get out of the bed. Gambit was up in a flash and pushed his cousin back on the bed. "What y' doin homme? Tryin t' kill y' self?

Etienne looked at Gambit, seeing him for the first time. "It hurts." He tried to get up again but was too weak to fight for long.

Beast moved forward and looked down at his patient. "Etienne, the bone stimulator in your arm caused your heart to palpitate, giving you a heart arrhythmia. Are you saying your still in pain?"

Etienne looked at everyone with vexation, unable to understand why they wouldn't let him up. "Can't y' feel it? Let me out o' here."

Rogue looked at the three men and suddenly had an idea. "Hank, since he's on the meds he can't control his powers right?"

McCoy looked over at her and nodded. "Yes, he had the same problem last time we had to use a significant level of pain killers."

Rogue looked at Gambit. "Then ain't it possible he's sensing somebody and is trying to go help them?"

Gambit looked at his younger cousin. "Gambit an' Rogue'll go and help, if y' promise t'stay in bed. Deal?"

Etienne looked at the two of them for a moment, and then nodded, since he was too tired to move anyway. "Deal." Before they could leave the room, he had fallen asleep again.

Rogue looked over at Gambit. "So what do we do now?"

Gambit shrugged. "What do we usually do? Let's go see de Professor an' ask if he's got an idea how t'handle dis." Rogue knocked on the door to the Professor's study, pushing it open when she heard him say to enter. Scott, Logan, Jean and Orroro were already sitting in the room, having been discussing the newest student. "Professor, sorry to bother yah, but Etienne woke up an' is having a problem."

Xavier looked at the two students in the doorway. "Define problem, please."

"He started talking 'bout hurting, so we're guessing his power's are picking somebody up in trouble."

The Professor exchanged a glance with Jean before motioning Rogue and Gambit to take a seat. "I believe I know what is going on, please close the door and sit down. You are aware we are welcoming a new student today?" At Gambit's nod he continued. "There have been significant events in her life that precipitated her arrival here. It's not my place to tell you exactly what happened, but I she suffered severe emotional and physical pain, much of which has yet to heal. Etienne seems to be sensing that even as drug and shielded as he is."

Gambit looked at the Professor. "How's it possible for y' to shield 'im from everyone but he can still do dat?"

"I'm not sure. Since it appears he can only do it with the new student, she may have latent empathic abilities." He looked at the other adults in the room. "Or his powers could be evolving again. We will have to keep an eye on him."


	5. First Meeting

Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I still haven't bought any stock in Marvel so I don't own the X-Men.

V.V.V.V.V.V.V.V

Etienne came to, finding Jean sitting in the seat next to him. "How are you feeling?"

He licked his lips. "Honestly? Like dat Juggernaut guy sat on me. What happened?"

She got up and poured him a glass of water out a near-by pitcher. "The stimulator in your arm gave you a small heart attack."

"Dat why I feel so woozy?"

"Yes, that and the painkillers to keep the stress on your heart down."

He groaned and closed his eyes. "Bobby's watchin his girly videos again."

Jean blushed and sent a mental request to Bobby to stop his current activity. "Sorry, he's promised to stop watching them for the time being. Can I get you anything else?"

"How long ha' I been asleep?"

Jean turned around in the doorway to answer the last question. "About a day. Everyone should be starting to come down for breakfast soon so I'll grab you some. Any requests?"

"Yeah, some bacon an' eggs."

About that time Dr. McCoy walked past Jean into the room. "No bacon I'm afraid, the salt content it too high. You can have some toast though."

Etienne shook his head in disbelief. "Y' got ta be kiddin me. Fo' how long?"

Beast was watching the readout on the EKG machine. "Oh, about three weeks just as a precaution. If you'd like we can do some basic tests now so that after your breakfast you can go back to your room."

"Yay. Let m' guess, de prescription is bed rest?"

McCoy brightened, not catching the hint of sarcasm. "Exactly. Lots of bed rest with a low-sodium intake. We don't want to place any strain on your heart until it recovers."

V.V.V.V.V.V

Etienne sighed with frustration. He'd spent the majority of the past three weeks in his room being waited on hand and foot by the other students at the Institute. Normally, he wouldn't have minded, but at this point he thought he'd scream if one more person popped their head in and asked if he needed anything. Of course, it didn't help that because of the medications his powers were out of control. Just yesterday Scott and Remy had gotten into a shouting match in the Danger Room 2 stories down. Even that far away his powers had reacted and he had almost bitten Jubilee's head off when she came to bring him lunch. Thankfully tomorrow McCoy was going to reevaluate his condition and see if he could get off the medications.

A knock sounded on his door and Rogue popped her head in. He could see she was in uniform "We're leavin' on a mission. If ya need anything Brooke is next door." He waved her off. "Go break a leg an' try t' keep m' cousin from killin' his self." She grinned at him glad he was looking better.

About three hours later, he decided to go and get something to eat from the kitchen. He was shutting the door to his room when he turned around and literally ran into somebody coming up behind him. He turned around to apologize only to stare at the girl in front of him. :Dis must be de elusive Brooke, de new student everyone keeps talking 'bout.:

Brooke looked at the guy who had just bumped into her. From the patch over his eye she knew this must be that guy Etienne who had been in the Med Bay the day she arrived. She agreed with the description Kitty had given her. He definitely looked cute, kinda like Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean. "Hi, you must be Etienne."

He nodded. "Oui. I was jus' on m' way t' get lunch. Would y' like t' join me?"

Since she had been heading to the kitchen anyway she nodded. "Sure. In fact I know where Kitty stashed a bag of Doritos that we can snag."

He covered his heart with his hand and sighed. "Fo Doritos, I'll make de sandwiches. Deal?"

She grinned at him, feeling comfortable being alone with a guy for the first time in who knew how long. "Deal."

He returned her smile. Maybe today wouldn't be a complete waste after all.

The two of them plopped down at the kitchen table with their ham sandwiches and the bag of Doritos, talking about anything and everything. They found out there was a lot in common between them. Both enjoyed computer games, science fiction movies, fantasy novels, and a varied taste in music. They were both from the South, and both loved fresh seafood.

"Your kidding me! He didn't really do that just to impress a girl did he?" Brooke had been listening to a story Etienne was telling about growing up in New Orleans with his cousins.

"Sure did. His Daddy skinned his hide soon as he found out too." He looked at her, wondering why they hadn't met sooner since their rooms were next door to each other. "So what's y' mutant power?" He was looking down at his plate or he would have seen her face blanche.

"I don't know." She knew he would eventually ask. Everyone had asked her at one time or another only to receive the same answer. Most of them looked at her like they thought she was lying, but she didn't care. Well, not really. Even with all the work she and the Professor had been doing, she still couldn't remember too many details of her assault.

He looked up in surprise, just now noticing the look on her face. "Y' kay chere? Y' look pale."

She nodded. "I'm fine. It's just hard to explain when people ask me that." In reality she was not feeling fine. It was extremely hard even two months later to discuss the event that had led to her coming to the Xavier Institute.

He studied her. "Y' don't have t' talk about it if y' don't want ta. Dere are some t'ings I don't like talkin' bout too."

She looked down at her hands and swallowed, feeling nervous. "No, it's okay. Professor Xavier says it will help if I talk about it." She looked back up at him. "I was assaulted one night by a group of guys, or at least that's what the police report says."

He raised his eyes in surprise. "What de report say?"

She nodded. "I was unconscious when they found me." She could feel her fear starting to pull at her insides, and tried hard not to show it.

"Did they catch de guys who did it?" With both the Professor and Jean gone on the mission, his empathy was starting to pick up her nervousness and fear.

She looked down and a tear escaped to slide down her cheek. "You could say that. When the police got to the scene, all my attackers were dead." She broke down at that point.

He reached out and grabbed her hand only to drop it and clutch the table with a grunt. The contact had sent his powers into overdrive and he could feel everything she was. He swallowed hard and looked into her face. "It wasn't y' fault chere, y' not responsible fo' killin' dose men."

"I've got to go." She looked at him horror as he spoke aloud exactly what she had been thinking a moment before. She ran out of the kitchen and up the stairs back to her room.

He watched her go, wanting to help but knowing with his abilities out of hand things could get worse instead of better. He picked up the plates and put them in the dishwasher before walking to the Rec room to stare at the television, with a slight headache behind his eyes.

V.V.V.V.V.V

When the others returned in high spirits because of the success of their mission his mood improved. With everyone working together dinner was ready in no time. Etienne was beginning to sit between his cousin and Kurt when Jubilee, who was across the table, looked around and asked where Brooke was. Etienne looked around and sighed, running a hand across his eyes. He hadn't seen her since she had run upstairs earlier in the day. "I'll get her, she's in her room."

Remy exchanged a look with Kurt, both of them wondering what had happened while the others had been gone.

Etienne knocked on the door to Brook's room. She cracked it open and looked at him. "De others are downstairs waitin' on y' ta eat dinner."

"I'm not hungry."

He put his foot in the door and pushed it farther open. "So what, when did y' start hidin' in y' room?"

She narrowed her eyes at him. "I'm not hiding, I'm just not hungry. Now if you don't mind, get out!"

He grinned at her, which infuriated her more. "Non. Y' avoiding me den. 'Sides, y' forget with m' abilities I can tell y' starving."

"You forgot starving and very annoyed at you. Fine, I'll come down to dinner if you'll leave me alone. Happy?" She started to push past him.

He grabbed her arm and pulled her around to look at him. "Only if y' are chere."

She looked up at his face, sensing the seriousness of his tone. Without saying a word she pulled her arm from his hand and walked down the hallway without looking back.

He stared after her, wondering what the hell was wrong with him to do something like that. He knew she had been surprised and frightened when he grabbed her. Can't wait till I get off de meds an' get control of m' powers back.


	6. Midnight Confession

**Disclaimer:** I sadly don't own the X-Men.

V.V.V.V.V.V.V.V

Breathing heavily, Etienne awoke and flipped his bedside light on. It had been another nightmare. It had been a week, and it was the same thing every night. He was in a dark alleyway, surrounded, trying to fight off a group of guys. To calm himself, he reached in a drawer and grabbed a pack of cigarettes. He knew with his heart that he shouldn't be smoking, but he needed the relaxation it would bring him. 

It had all gone wacky the day he had touched Brooke in the kitchen. After that, some part of his mind sensed everything she felt. He hadn't told even the Professor because he wasn't quite sure if it upset him or not. Since he had met her, he felt a connection with her that he had felt with no other person. He didn't know if he should tell her or not. It would probably freak her out and she wouldn't talk to him again. He sighed, wishing for the simple life he had led back in New Orleans up until seven months ago.

He stepped out on his balcony and lit up, looking up into the sky at the quarter moon. A sound to his left had him looking over and he saw Brooke's door was open. On a whim, he scrambled on top of the railing and jumped over to her balcony, landing a little rougher than he would have liked.

"Who's there?"

He stuck his head in her room and looked around. "Jus' me. Couldn't sleep?"

She nodded. "You know you shouldn't be here."

He shrugged. "You going t' tell on me?"

She smirked at him. "I think I'll wait to blackmail you later."

He grinned at her. "Den I better watch out an' not get y' upset wit me."

She laughed and then looked serious.

"What's wrong wit you?"

She looked down at the floor and sighed. "I keep having nightmares."

He felt his heart start to pound, and he opened his mouth before he thought better of it. "Y' in an alley trying t' fight off a bunch o' guys an' jus when y' fall down y' wake up."

They looked at each other in shock. "How did you know that?" She was up on her feet, backing away from him, a look of fear in her eyes.

He ran his hand through his hair. "I have de same nightmare every night. Dat why I was out on de balcony." He sat in her desk chair and looked at her.

She swallowed, trying to think. "How long?"

"Bout a week, every since I touched y' hand." He couldn't meet her eyes. "I'm sorry, I t'ink it's m' powers dat are causin' it."

She looked at him. "But I thought you're an empath so you should only sense strong emotion. How are you doing that?"

He bowed his head and looked at his feet. "Normally I have t' touch someone t' sense what de feelin 'less dey have a really strong emotion." He looked up at her. "Since I touched y' dat day in de kitchen, I can sense anythin y' feel. It might have t' do wit' dat."

She didn't know whether to be mortified or angry. "This has been going on for a week and you didn't tell me?"

He held up his hands. "Chere, I'm sorry but what was I supposed t' tell you? I've liked y' from de minute I met y' an since I did, m' powers seem t' have formed some kind o' bond wit you?" You'd t'ink I was crazy.

She realized her mouth had dropped open. "Are you serious?"

He looked hurt. "Bout what?"

"About liking me? About the whole you can sense whatever I'm feeling thing."

He looked embarrassed again. "Yeah, I'm serious."

"Then what am I feeling now?" She concentrated.

He pondered it a minute, trying to decipher the feelings. Then he cracked a grin. "Y' t'ink I'm sexy."

She rolled her eyes, getting upset. "I knew you were joking with me."

He looked serious. "Non, y' are a little frightened, curious, and excited?" He said the last as a question, looking at her for confirmation.

She nodded slowly, sitting on the side of her bed. "You weren't kidding."

"Now y' nervous."

She shot him a look. "Well wouldn't you be?"

He nodded and then sighed. "It's not like somethin I can control. I've tried blockin y' out, but it don't work fo' very long, it gives me a headache." He wondered what she was thinking.

She stared at him, not saying a word. "Would you like to do something tomorrow night?"

That was NOT what he expected her to say, and he surprised her by looking momentarily stunned. "Oui. What would y' like t' do?"

She shrugged. "We could go see a movie or something."

He grinned. "I would like dat chere."

Just then they both heard a knock on the door. They both looked at each other in horror knowing only one person would be up in the mansion at this hour. She motioned for him to shoo, both of them hoping Logan's nose wouldn't give them away. When she thought he'd had enough time she opened the door. "Aren't you a little old to be running around the mansion this time of the morning Logan?"

He sniffed and looked at her. "I didn't know you smoked."

She grinned at him. "There's a lot of stuff you don't know about me."

He grunted and studied her again. "Little late to be up."

She sighed. "Nightmares."

He nodded. "Want to talk about it?"

She shook her head. "Thanks, but no. I was just about to try and go back to bed."

"Okay. I'm here if you need someone to talk to."

She had to smile at the thought of big, gruff Wolverine offering to listen to her describe her nightmares.

He turned to continue down the hallway before turning back to her. "Oh, and tell the younger Cajun he shouldn't be smoking with his heart problems." Her mouth dropped open, her eyes wide as saucers. He chuckled the entire way down the stairs.


	7. A BIG Suprise

**Disclaimer:** I don't own the X-Men, darn it!

V.V.V.V.V.V.V.V

Etienne slouched against the wall, wiping the sweat off his face with the back of his hand. He had been finally cleared by Hank for light physical exercise. If this was Wolverine going lightly, he'd hate to know what it felt like when he was going all out. He felt so abused he just wanted to make his way to the jacuzzi and fall down in it, but he had to stay. He watched the newest of the students at the Institute as she took her place in front of Wolverine on the sparring mat

When Brooke had first arrived, the Professor had been unusually quiet and told few X-Men of her background. Etienne was one of the few she had told about being accosted outside of a nightclub in her hometown. In order to get her away from the local police and their suspicions of a mutant, her parents had quickly contacted a friend who knew Dr. McCoy and of the Professor. She ended up in New York a few days later. No one was quite sure of her mutant ability. Tests done before she came to the Institute had proven she had an active X gene. The Professor thought that the attack had caused trauma that kept her unconscious mind from allowing her mutant abilities to manifest again.

Since the night Etienne had told her about the weird bond his empathy had forged with her, they had been inseparable. She really had a wicked sense of humor, but it showed so rarely and everyone else probably thought she didn't have one. They really enjoyed each other's company since they had so many likes in common. In fact, he was thinking of their date that night. He had talked Remy into going into town and picking up Independence Day, her favorite movie, from the video store for him. His attention was drawn back to earth when he heard Wolverine begin to give instructions.

::Are you sure about this Chuck?:: Logan didn't mind teaching anyone self defense, but he could smell exactly how nervous the girl in front of him was.

:It's been two months and her situation has not had any noticeable improvement. Hopefully these sessions with you will lead to some kind of a break through.: The Professor was watching the Danger room from the control area above.

Wolverine sighed and began explaining exactly what he was going to do. They started slowly; working on blocks and basic kicks that Brooke was already familiar with from her previous training. When she loosened up and became more comfortable, he began showing her some combinations. After about 15 minutes of that, he stopped and began reviewing throws with her.

"Now you have already covered throws while working with Storm right?" Wolverine waited for her to nod even though he already knew the answer to the question. "Good. Do you remember the throw I was working on with Patch over there?" He watched her look over at Etienne before nodding again. "Okay, I want you to try the same thing." She nodded and changed her footing into a ready stance. Wolverine took a deep breath and wondered if this was really the best thing to be doing. Then without warning, he closed in, going for the grab that would allow Brooke to use the throw she has already seen used previously

Etienne watched Wolverine lead Brooke through the basics and then into combinations. When they stopped the sparring and she looked over at him, he figured they were about to try the throw that he and Wolverine had been practicing. He watched the two combatants ready their positions, and then when Wolverine grabbed Brooke, all hell broke loose. The wave of anger and fear from Brooke had Etienne grasping desperately for his head, trying to block it out of his mind, every nerve on fire. He reinforced his mental shields and looked up groggily just in time to see Wolverine being thrown halfway across the Danger Room.

::Well we know what her mutation is now.:: The Professor caught the stray thought from Etienne as he tried to make contact with Brooke's mind. It had been shocking to see her morph so quickly and then stick a set of very large talons into Logan's chest before kicking him backwards across the room. ::Etienne, I can't make contact with Brooke while she's so upset. Can you try to calm her down before she goes after Logan again? Logan, don't move, you may trigger her to attack you.::

Etienne nodded and studied the 12 foot creature that Brooke had become. He had to admit she was the most beautiful dragon he had ever seen. Her body scales were a dark blue, almost black that faded to a light blue-purple shade on her belly and under the wings. Strips of clothing hung around her body where the transformation had busted seams. The dragon growled, flaring its wings and taking a few steps towards the wall where Wolverine was laying.

Etienne walked towards her slowly, still feeling woozy from the emotional barrage earlier. He began projecting calm and confidence at the center of the maelstrom that was her mind, quietly moving behind her. Without any warning, she turned and bared some of the biggest teeth he had ever seen, hissing. He stopped immediately in place, turning his head so that he was studying the creature from the corner of his eye. He faintly remembered reading where many animals considered a direct stare as a challenge. :Merde, hope dis don't get me killed.:

The dragon moved towards him, head lowered, rumbling deep in her chest. He held his breath as it came within striking distance, working to keep projecting a sense of calm that he did not feel at this point. He felt moist breath on his face as it bent closer, sniffing his scent. They stood that way for a moment, frozen, along with everyone watching. Without understanding exactly what he was doing, he reached up gently and grabbed the large head as it hung beside his own, pulling it down until the he could stare into the blue eyes. He felt her then, emotions swirling in the back of his head as the bodily contact negated his mental shields against her. In another moment, he had his hands full as she lost the shape and returned to human. Sitting on the floor, he gathered her into his lap, rocking slowly as she cried into his chest.

::Bobby, you and Ray get Logan and take him to the infirmary. Try to avoid Brooke and Etienne as much as you can. Etienne, when she calms down bring her to my office please. Everyone else is dismissed.:: Professor Xavier looked down at the floor of the Danger Room where two of his younger students were helping a very groggy Wolverine to his feet.

"What the hell happened?" Wolverine rubbed his head where it had come into contact with the wall.

::Brooke's mutant power seems to be the ability to morph. When you grabbed her, it must have triggered memories of the night she was attacked and she shifted to defend herself.:: The Professor answered the question while waiting for them in the hallway.

::So I guess we just got your breakthrough?::

::Yes.::

::Good, 'cause I think I broke my arm when I hit the floor if you hadn't.::


	8. A Friend in Need

**Disclaimer:** I don't own the X-Men, or Marvel, but if anyone wants to sell me some stock, I'll pay you in peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. All you can eat, what a steal!!

V.V.V.V.V.V.V.V

Etienne felt the body in his arms wrack with sobs. "Y' among friends now." He gently smoothed the hair back from her face and kissed her forehead. He knew he should be worried, but the fact that his shields were fully up and he could still feel her emotions didn't really scare him.

"It was awful. I couldn't get away. I fought, but it didn't do anything. They just laughed and told me to keep it up." She gripped him harder, burying her face in his shirt. "Finally they got tired of it, and one of them punched me and I fell. And then..." At this point, she started crying harder if that was possible.

He smoothed her hair again, feeling helpless in the waves of pain and anguish that she was giving off and fighting to maintain his own demeanor. "Non, y' not ta blame chere. It ain't y' fault." He could feel his anger building at the men who would attack any woman the way she had been. Of course, they had paid for it with their lives, but if he could bring them back if only to beat them into a senseless pulp at that moment, he would have.

"I shouldn't have walked out alone. I should have waited for my friends. I could have asked one of the bouncers to walk me to my car." Whatever she was mumbling became a little incoherent at that point and all he could really hear was her crying.

He felt helpless and said the only thing he could. "If y' hadn't, y' wouldn't be here now. Dose men would jus ha' found anot'er girl an she might o' not made it alive like y' did."

Minutes later, Etienne felt her sobs slow to soft hiccups as he slowly stroked his fingers through her hair. Using his empathy to project calm and caring, he slowly pulled her head up so he could look her in the face. "Y' safe now chere. Those men can't hurt y' no mo'." She just tightened her arms around his waist in answer.

V.V.V.V.V.V

"I'm sorry about your shirt." She rubbed the last tears out of her eyes and wiped them on the remains of her sweat pants.

He looked down only now noticing that his shirt was soaked through and there were goosebumps on his arms. "It ain't matter none. How y' feeling?"

"I'm cold." She smiled shyly at him; grateful that he had stayed when most men would have left her to cry on the first woman they could talk into staying.

"Well, I'm not surprised seeing the mess y' made of y' clothes. Maybe next time y' decide t' get angry y' might get undressed first." He took off his jacket and handed it to her.

She stared at him in shock before looking down at herself. "Oh god! I'm practically naked. Why didn't you tell me?"

"Well, y' were pretty busy up until a few minutes ago, no?" He took the opportunity to smirk at her, glad she was slowly cheering up.

"How am I going to get back to my room like this? Everyone is going to see me." She felt fear welling up again when he grabbed her arm and started pulling her towards the boys locker room. "What are you doing?"

"I have a clean towel in my locker down here. Y' can use it t' wrap y'self up in while y' get to y' room t' change." He stopped and turned to look at her. "Less y' want t' go naked?"

She stared at him, her mouth opening and closing but no sound coming out.

"Y' know y' look like a fish when y' do dat." He grinned again and continued his way to his locker.

Luckily they ended up at her room without meeting a single soul. She put her hand on the knob and then paused, looking back at him.

He nodded understanding what she wanted to say. "When y' feel able, de Professor want t' see y' in his study."

"Okay." She turned away and slipped through the door, closing it quietly behind her.

He trudged back down the hallway, thinking to himself that if anyone had ever needed a drink, he needed one right then.

V.V.V.V.V.V

Brooke knocked on the door to the Professor's office. She had already found Logan and apologized, but he had laughed it off and said it was nothing since he was already healed.

::Come in Brooke.::

She pushed the door open and sat in front of the Professor.

"How are you feeling?"

"I have a slight headache but Dr. McCoy already gave me something for it."

The Professor nodded. "It's probably from using your mutant ability."

"Yeah, that's what I figured too."

"Would you mind talking to me about what happened?"

She shook her head. "No, I don't mind, but it's pretty fuzzy after the point where Logan grabbed me." She cocked her head and looked at him. "I remember being scared and then furiously angry. Then I got a feeling like I was burning up from the inside out." She shivered. "I could feel my bones melting." She looked away. "Everything gets really sketchy after that, more like impressions that actually memories."

The Professor appeared to be deep in thought. "The heat and melting sensation must have been when you shape-shifted into your dragon form. Is there anything else you can tell me?"

She wondered if she should tell him about the link she shared with Etienne, but decided against it. It wasn't really any of his business, especially since it wasn't hurting either of them. "No, not really." She looked down at her hands clenched in her lap. "I remembered what happened during my assault, and it was like I was reliving it again but everything was fast-forward. I think at that point Etienne grabbed me because it was like someone throwing cold water on me, I suddenly realized those events had already taken place and were over."

"Do you remember turning back?"

She shook her head. "No, it's all mixed up together by the end."

"How do you feel about what you remember about the assault?"

She looked up. "I feel guilty about killing those guys, and I know it was me now for sure, but at the same time, they asked for it. Like a friend told me, if it hadn't been me they grabbed, they might have grabbed someone else who wouldn't have been able to fight back."

He nodded. "Since it's dinner time I think that's enough for now. Tomorrow I would like to try and see if we can recreate the point where you morphed without having Logan grab you." He smiled at her. "We need to make sure you can consciously control your abilities so that every time you get frightened or angry you don't suddenly try to start throwing people around."

She grinned at him. "I understand."


	9. Nightmare

**Disclaimer:** I don't own the X-Men, just the idea of Brooke. Whoop-ee

V.V.V.V.V.V

He had to get up; they couldn't do this to him. ::Fight, got to fight them, Bastards!:: One of them grabbed his arms and held him down while the other tore away his skirt. ::Oh God, not that.:: Etienne bolted upright, a scream dying on his lips. He felt like he was burning up and threw the covers off himself. He looked wildly around his room, finally realizing it had been a nightmare only to hear pounding coming from the hallway. He threw open his door to find several of the X-Men clustered around Brooke's door. Bobby was banging on it, not getting an answer. "What de hell is goin' on?"

Kitty yelled at him across the hallway. "Like, we heard screaming and then lots of crashes coming from her room and now she's not answering. Evan went to go get Logan."

Something was clicking together in the back of his mind. :The nightmare!: "Don't open dat door!" Just as he opened his mouth, Bobby finally succeeded in busting the door open. A low hissing sound made everyone jump back. Suddenly a large dark shape came boiling out of the dimness. "Everyone, get out o' de hallway now, she won't know what she's doing!" A few made attempts to follow his directions, but Bobby had been too close. A claw reached out and snagged the back of his shirt pulling him towards the sharp teeth. "No! Drop him." Etienne lunged and slapped the dragon on its muzzle. As he had intended it forgot about Bobby to lunge at him. He stood in place, hoping she wouldn't bite him. The dragon stopped and hissed again, head dropping low, sniffing at him. "Get back!" He waved his arms, trying to steer her back towards the relative safety of her room, keeping himself between her and any other student. Suddenly she turned and bolted back into the bedroom.

Etienne felt rather than saw Remy come up behind him. "What happened?"

"She had a nightmare." Etienne moved slowly to stand to the left of the doorframe.

Logan and Storm came running up the hallway. "Everyone get back in your rooms and stay there. We will talk with you later." Logan looked at Etienne. "Can you handle her?"

Etienne nodded. When Storm tried to move past him Logan put a hand out. "No, let Patch handle this." She looked at him incredulously. "Trust me, you weren't in the Danger Room earlier."

Etienne moved to stand in the doorway. The growl came from the far side of the room. He moved into the room, slowly closing the door behind him as he cleared the threshold. The growl became a louder rumble. He reached over and flicked the light on. She was curled in a corner of the room. :Oh, chere.: He limped over to the scaly form. She made a half-hearted attempt to snap at him as he put his hand on her side, letting his power bridge the link between them. :She's scared witless.: He snagged the bedspread from the mattress and pulled it over, moving to sit next to her. She shifted, hissing slightly. He reached over and rubbed her head. :Calm down chere. I'll keep y' safe.:

V.V.V.V.V.V.V

Downstairs the other X-Men were meeting with Xavier at the kitchen table. "So what your saying is whenever she gets angry or frightened Brooke is going to turn into that, that thing?" Bobby was yelling while a very annoyed Hank was trying to determine if he had sustained any injuries from being grabbed by a very ticked off dragon.

"Until she gains control of her abilities, yes." Xavier looked at the wildly gesturing student down the table. "Unfortunately while in that state she seems unable to communicate normally, either verbally or telepathically. Etienne's empathy allows him to influence her emotionally and she responds to that."

Scott looked around the table. "What he means is, if you see Brooke getting extremely angry or frightened, go find Etienne or try to calm her down yourself."

Bobby interrupted him. "Then why in hell did she attack me?"

Remy spoke up. "She saw y' as a threat." Everyone looked at him. "Etienne told me she had a nightmare. If she can't t'ink normally when changed like dat, den she must have t'ought y' were attackin her when y' busted her door open."

Bobby had the decency to look embarrassed. "Oh."

V.V.V.V.V.V.V

Brooke cracked her eyes open, blinking against the light coming in through the window and unsure of why she was sleeping on the floor. It took a moment to realize that she was naked and not alone. With a yelp she flipped around only to see Etienne looking at her in surprise.

"Good morning t' you to chere." He sat up and ran a hand through his hair, yawning as he did so. "Feeling better?"

She clutched the blanket tighter to her. "Why are you in my room?" Looking around, she realized her room was a wreck. "What happened?"

"Y' don't remember?"

She looked at him. "I remember going to sleep, I think I had a nightmare and then..." She looked at him with dawning apprehension. "You came and ...did I hurt anyone?" She wanted to cry. Everyone would hate her now for attacking them.

He could feel her getting upset so he put his arm around her. "Non, everyone just lost some sleep is all."

She glanced down at the floor. "I'm sorry."

He played with her hair. "Why don't y' take a shower an den I'll come t' help y' clean up? Den we can grab some sandwiches an' go t' de lake so y' don't have t' face anyone till y' ready."

She looked around at the mess that was her room. "Thanks for the offer, but I think I better face everyone sooner rather than later."

He secretly agreed with her, and had been afraid she would take him up on his suggestion. "Okay den. I'll see y' downstairs fo' breakfast."

She nodded. "We better hurry or there won't be anything left."

He grinned at her as he stood. "I don't ha' t' worry bout dat, everybody knows femmes take longer t' get ready."

She grabbed a nearby book and chucked it at him, barely missing his head as he darted out the door.

V.V.V.V.V.V.V

**Author's Note:** Hey! I actually got a review. Somebody likes it, they really like it! Thank you **BananaPanda24!**


	10. This means WAR!

**Disclaimer**: Still don't own the X-men.

V.V.V.V.V.V.

When Brooke opened her door to head down to breakfast, she was not surprised to see Etienne waiting on her. "Thought you'd be downstairs by now."

He smirked at her. "An' give y' de chance t' change y' mind?"

She acted offended. "So your saying I'm chicken?"

He looked her up and down, taking his time. "If y' a chicken, dose are some o' de best lookin' legs I ever seen."

She laughed at him as she preceded him into the kitchen. "Thanks I guess." They fixed their plates and went to the table to sit down. Brooke was feeling nervous until Kitty looked up and motioned towards a free seat between her and Jubilee. She grinned and sat down.

"So like, we drew car washing duty today. Want to help us?" Kitty, Jubilee, Rahne, Amara and Rogue all looked at her.

"Sure! How many cars are we doing?"

"Only three since Scott has to do his own. It should take us about 2 hours or so to finish depending on how much we goof off. The guys always seem to appear and try to distract us."

Rahne snorted in disbelief. "What she means to say is they try to prank us every single time we get car washing duty."

Brooke looked at Rahne. "So do we have a plan?"

Rahne grinned wolfishly. "Oh, I like how you think."

Brooke grinned back. "When we get done here, lets meet in my room and discuss it." The girls giggled, wondering how much trouble they were about to get in.

Kurt tapped Etienne on the shoulder. "This doesn't look gut."

"What?" He looked around at the other guys.

Kurt motioned everyone to look over to where the girls had their heads together at the other end of the table. "They are planning something."

Bobby smiled. "They have car wash duty today." Everyone grinned, relishing the thought of the girls and LOTS of water.

V.V.V.V.V.V

The girls slipped into Brooke's room after making sure none of the guys were around. She had a huge cardboard box open on her bed and was going through it, piling stuff on every available surface.

"So like, what's the plan?" Kitty was standing behind her trying to look into the box.

"Ah ha! Found em!." Brooke held aloft several small bags filled with colored powders.

"Um, I don't get it."

Brooke smiled. "I've had more hobbies than you can shake a stick at. When I left to come here, I packed all my stuff up in this box. My parents mailed it to me since I didn't know how long I'd be staying and I couldn't take it on the plane. These are dyes from when I was in my batik stage. Add a little salt and water, and these babies will dye anything they touch."

The girls giggled. "But how are we going to get the dye on the boys?"

"I was thinking we could station Rogue on the roof with the dyes in water balloons. She could just use some of that strength and pelt any prankers who show up."

Jubilee looked a little disbelieving. "Won't they figure out she's missing and know something's up?"

Brooke grinned. "That's the second part of the plan, divide and conquer. Everyone have an old tight t-shirt and a pair of shorts? The girls all nodded. "All we have to do is make sure we get wet in some shall we say, strategic places, and make a big deal about bending over and showing our butts off. The guys will be too busy staring and drooling to notice anything going on.

Rahne laughed. "You think dirty. They won't know what hit them!"

V.V.V.V.V.V.V

Jean knew something was up when she saw the other girls, wearing exceedingly tight

t-shirts and cut-offs, trooping into the garage together. She made a mental note to warn Scott to stay away from where they were washing the cars in case something happened.

True to the plan, Rogue had already stashed the girl's supply of water balloons on the roof in preparation for their little surprise. The girls parked the cars in the grass, and acted like everything was normal. After they were done with the first car and starting on the second, Rahne smelled Bobby, Sam and Kurt. "Hey, I smell prankers!"

Brooke nodded. "Okay girls, lets put the plan into motion." Rahne had the hose and proceeded to soak Kitty who made a hug deal of wrestling for it back, getting Brooke, Amara and Jubilee wet in the process. All the girls began squealing and throwing the sponges they had been using to wash the cars. In the madness, Rogue made her escape and got onto the roof.

Evan busted into the Rec Room where Etienne and Remy were playing cards. "Guys, you have got to come outside and see this! The girls have gone bonkers; playing with the hose getting soaking wet. It can't get any better than this!" They all pelted down the stairs and out the front door where they all stood in shock.

Jubilee and Amara had Kitty pinned to side of a car trying to put a big soapy sponge down her shirt while Rahne and Brooke were rolling in the mud and grass fighting for the water hose.

"Holy shit! Girl on girl mud wrestling!!" Evan and the two Cajuns stared, unable to tare their eyes away. At that moment, Bobby and the other prankers went into action. They had a second hose to which they had attached a fertilizer feeder full of grape kool-aid. Bobby chilled it just enough and then they turned the water on the already wet girls.

The loud screams were the signal Rogue had been waiting for. She wasted no time in pelting every guy present with the dye balloons. The other girls joined in, grabbing anything handy to throw at the unlucky boys.

By the time Logan and Jean got outside, the whole group had joined in a giant mud-wrestling contest. Everyone was covered in dye, mud, and grass and slinging whatever they could grab, laughing madly the entire time. He had decided he wasn't going to step in when somebody missed their intended target and pelted him in the face with a giant glob of mud. He rubbed the offending goop off his face and took a deep breath. "ENOUGH!" Everyone on the lawn froze. "Since all of you have so much energy, you have fifteen minutes to get cleaned up and meet me downstairs for a Danger Room session. Anyone who's late can get up at 5AM with me tomorrow to make it up." Even he had to laugh at how hilarious it was to watch them all scatter like a bunch of mice, before he even finished what he was saying.


	11. Wolverine's Revenge

**Disclaimer:** So do you think lawyers from Marvel really waste their time reading these things? Just to be on the safe side, I don't own the X-Men.

**Author's Note**: I'm going to apologize in advance. This chapter is a long because I couldn't find a good place to split it. I guess it makes up for the last couple being so short. Sorry! I wanted to explain the process of Brooke's shape shifting, but that will have to wait until next chapter.

V.V.V.V.V.V.V

Fifteen minutes on the dot Wolverine walked through the doors of the Danger Room. He looked around at all the gathered students, trying hard not to laugh. They all looked much worse for wear after their brawl. "Well, you guys are certainly a colorful bunch aren't ya?" Wolverine couldn't resist the pun. "Let's do some team sparring. Pick a random partner and start. No powers." He walked around the room, commenting where needed.

"Okay, enough of that. Now that you're warmed up, lets do a bit of a contest shall we? Let me have the guys on the left side of the room and girls on the right. The object is to stay on the mat, or over it as the case may be. Do whatever you have to win. Any questions? When no one spoke up, he motioned to Jubilee and Bobby. "Your up. Show us what you got."

Bobby stepped onto the mat and looked at Jubilee. Without saying a word he iced a large portion of the mat around her feet and then grinned at her. She smiled back and used her powers to momentarily blind him. She jumped, trying to clear the ring of ice only to have him grab her arm and fall, using her forward momentum to throw her off the mat. "Sorry, no hard feelings right?" He grinned at her. She just sniffed and stomped off, hoping Rahne had better luck.

Rahne shifted to her full wolf form as soon as she was on the mat. As soon as Logan gave the signal to begin, she charged Evan, forcing him to give ground as he fell back. He shot off some spikes at her, using the distraction to dance around behind her. His foot in a patch of ice left from the last fight and he slipped, landing on his back. Rahne jumped at him, forcing him to roll out of the way, getting extremely close to the edge of the mat as he did so. He stood up and shot off a few more spikes, driving her back, trying to regain the ground he had lost. She charged him again, and unluckily his foot found a different patch of ice. This time he just lost his balance enough so that when she landed, he was toppled off the mat. She stood on his chest and licked his cheek with her tongue before prancing off back to the other girls.

Kitty and Etienne were up next. Etienne had borrowed Gambit's bo-staff knowing his only hope of winning was to knock her off as quickly as possible because he still had little stamina. He held it stiffly in his right hand, and as soon as Logan nodded, swung the top at her head. She phased through it without a second thought, stepping closer to him to get in a punch. He brought the bottom of the staff around and used it to hook her leg, tripping her. She rolled and jumped to her feet, kicking out and making contact with his left knee. It buckled, and he hit the deck, the momentary pain making his head swim. She stopped, looking at him worriedly. "Are you okay?" He stood slowly favoring the leg and nodded. He gripped the staff and swung it at her legs, forcing her to phase through it. As she solidified, she punched him in the chest, sending him backwards. He hit the ice and slipped, cursing Bobby and trying to roll at the same time. He didn't make it. Etienne landed wrong, slamming his already hurt knee into the ground, causing him to grunt in pain. Logan walked over.

"That's enough. I'm calling this one. Patch, go get McCoy to check out that knee." He motioned Evan and Sam over to help.

"Well, at least we're ahead." Rahne was watching Sam help Etienne out of the Danger Room.

"Like, are you okay?" Kitty had just walked back to find Brooke rubbing her left knee.

"Yeah, it's just sympathy pains." She grinned at the other girl. "That looked like it really hurt."

Kitty nodded. "I feel bad winning that way."

Brooke shrugged. "With his empathy, he probably already knows." Kitty opened her mouth to reply when Rahne interrupted their conversation.

"Shhh! Amara is up against Kurt!"

Amara had already used her powers to throw several small fireballs at Kurt, with him narrowly avoiding them using his agility. Everyone stared as he jumped around like a monkey, with Amara throwing fireballs the entire time. Finally she got fed up and created a large fireball which he had no hope of avoiding. Sensing the shift of her mood, he teleported behind her the instant she threw it and grabbed her. He reappeared in mid-air on the other side of the Danger Room where he let her go. She fell, knocking the breath out of her lungs while he teleported back to the mat. As Kurt walked back to the boys side Bobby started cheering.

"Yeah man, that took less than 4 minutes, it's a new record!"

Remy got up and grabbed his bo-staff, he was up next against Brooke. As he was making his way over, Logan stopped him.

"Hey Cajun, word to the wise. Whatever you do, don't grab her from behind."

Gambit looked at Logan thinking that was one of the oddest pieces of advice he had ever heard. "Okay, I'll try not t' do dat."

Brooke stepped up to the mat to see Logan talking with Remy. "Hey! You can't give him help!"

Remy walked over and grinned. "Gambit don't need no help t' take you."

She grinned back but didn't reply, knowing he was right. He was one of the most experienced students because of his background. :Okay, I can do this, though it would help if I could use my powers right about now.: She took a deep breath, trying to remember everything Logan had been trying to teach her in the last couple months.

V.V.V.V.V.V.V.V

Sam and Evan made their way into the Medical Bay with Etienne limping in between them.

"My word, what happened to you?" Hank McCoy left his computer to come over and assist Etienne onto the examination table.

"I fell on de bad knee."

McCoy nodded and looked at Sam and Evan. "You boys can go back now. Of course, from the looks of it, your faces might need my medical attention." They both blushed with embarrassment and made a hasty exit, leaving Beast chuckling after them. He turned back to Etienne.

"I heard all about the little escapade you guys had outside. Does it hurt when I do this?" He took his hand and manipulated the kneecap.

"Oui!" Etienne yelped and tried to pull away.

"Hmm, better go ahead and take an X-Ray just to make sure, but I don't think you broke anything."

V.V.V.V.V.V.V.V

Gambit had moved first, trying to trip Brooke up with his staff, forcing her to move backwards towards the edge of the mat. She was trying to come up with a plan when a pain shot up her left leg, making her stumble. She recovered and threw herself to the side in time to avoid the staff, which had been aiming for her shoulder. As she landed, she swept her legs at Gambit's feet, attempting to trip him up. He easily jumped over them, and grabbed one, pulling her towards him and the edge of the mat. She had a flashback of her assault and screamed, twisting to pull free. Gambit was so surprised when she yelled that he let go.

V.V.V.V.V.V.V

"Are you okay?" McCoy had just watched Etienne pale and his eyes glaze over.

"Huh? Yeah, I'm okay." The familiar burning sensation was back, and he could feel Brooke's panic through his link with her.

McCoy took his pulse. "Your heart is racing! Are you experiencing any pain?"

Etienne distractedly shook his head, trying to calm Brooke down and listen to McCoy at the same time.

V.V.V.V.V.V.V

Brooke scrambled to the opposite side of the mat from Gambit, breathing hard. She could tell her mutant ability was trying to kick in, which was good, but at the same time if she morphed while Etienne was gone there was no telling what could happen. She stood, trying to decide what to do. The boys were tied with the girls at 2-2, and there was only Rogue and Sam left. If she lost to Remy, then the best they could hope for would be a tie. She came to a decision and used the universal signal for time-out, motioning Remy over.

"What y' need chere?"

She sighed. "I think I can use my powers, but wanted to give you a say-so since Etienne isn't here to stop me if I get rough."

He studied her, remembering the night before and how she had grabbed Bobby. "If you willing t' try it, den do it. Maybe Gambit be more o' a challenge dan Bobby, no?"

She nodded. "Okay, here goes." She closed her eyes and focused on the feelings of terror and panic she had gotten when Gambit and Logan grabbed her. She could feel the burning sensation, and then it was like a certain temperature was reached for she could feel her bones melt and reform. She opened her eyes and turned her head to look at the person in front of her. :I did it!: Gambit watched in amusement as Brooke proceeded to crane her neck around, trying to see what she looked like shape shifted. He thought she resembled a really big scaly dog trying to chase its tail.

V.V.V.V.V.V.V

Etienne could feel the heat building, and put both his hands on the bed to support himself. This was worse than the last couple of times it had happened. Without asking, McCoy grabbed the EKG machine and brought it over. "That's it, take your shirt off." Etienne shook his head, but was given little choice when McCoy grabbed him and proceeded to do it for him. In no time the leads were on. "Your body temperature is unbelievable, when did this start?"

Etienne gritted his teeth as the heat increased, then suddenly as the attack began it ended. His shoulders slumped and he looked at Hank. "Not long after I had de heart attack. Dere's extreme heat but den after a few minutes it goes away."

McCoy looked at the readings from the EKG machine. "Your heart rate was borderline for another attack and then it suddenly went back to normal." He looked confused. "I would like to run some tests, we need to know what is causing this."

Etienne shook his head. "Non, no tests. It comes an' den goes away, no harm done." He slipped off the bed, only to grab onto the bed when his knee threatened to give way again. "What bout m' knee?"

"Your knee is not broken, but will probably be sore and swollen for the next few days. Try not to walk too much and put ice on it. I would rather you let me run the tests before you go."

He didn't bother answering, just limped to the door. "Merci, Henri."

V.V.V.V.V.V.V.V

Brooke had finally remembered the reason she and Gambit were on the sparring mat. She turned and bobbed her head at him, giving him warning before she charged. He was prepared and sprang out of the way. She swung her head and barely missed him, making him give ground again. Since he was now behind her, she swung her tail like a whip, aiming for his legs. He used his staff like a pole vault, and landed on her back. She rolled, making him jump off. Everyone else had been holding their breath when she had shape-shifted. Now seeing the contest starting and Brooke seemingly rational, both sides began cheering. She stood up and lunged again, but as he swung his staff, this time she grabbed it in her mouth and pulled it from his grip. She slung it where it landed on the floor and slid out of reach.

"Well if y' want t' do dis de hard way." Gambit took out several cards. He energized one and tossed it at her. Thankfully Brooke had enough presence of mind not to snap at it. She reared back and spread her wings, using them to jump clumsily to the other side of the mat narrowly avoiding the flying missile. As soon as she landed she spun and cracked her tail, this time it caught Gambit on the side of his leg, making him loose his balance.

Etienne walked into the Danger Room just in time to see Gambit fall. The girls' side was nearest the door, so he sat down next to Kitty. She looked at him apologetically.

"Hey, how's your knee?"

"Been better."

"Brooke seems to be holding her own against Gambit."

He nodded, watching the fight.

Gambit recovered from the fall and charged three cards. He knew he wouldn't be able to withstand to many more blows like the one he had just taken. He tossed one card at Brooke, and when she tried to avoid it he tossed the second. She lost her balance and fell, before she could get out of the way he threw the third. In attempting to avoid the last card she overshot the edge of the mat and landed on the floor. She hissed, and picked up Gambit's staff, taking it back to him with a bob of her head.

"Merci."

She bobbed her head again and turned, seeing Etienne sitting with Kitty. She joined them, still in dragon form since she hadn't figured out how to turn human. Etienne reached out when she got close enough and tapped her on the nose. "Not bad chere." In that brief contact, Brooke had felt the throbbing in his knee through their link. She whined and nosed at his knee. "It ain't broken, jus' a little banged up is all. Gives me an excuse t' lay around fo' de next couple days." He chuckled, trying to relieve her worry. He glanced over to find Kitty staring at the two of them with a weird expression on her face. "What?"

She shook her head. "Nothing."

Logan looked around and then spoke up. "Well, that was a good show. Since the boys are leading 3-2, I'd say they won. Go ahead and hit the showers. It's lunch time anyway." He walked over to Etienne, ignoring the complaints of the girls. "Well Patch, what did McCoy say?"

"De knee ain't broken, but he said it's going t' swell."

Logan nodded and looked at Brooke. "Well Dragon? You going to change back?"

Brooke whined.

"I don't t'ink she knows how."

Logan turned around. "Rahne! Get over here!" When she got close enough Logan pointed to Brooke. "How do you turn from wolf to human?"

Rahne looked at Brooke. "Well, I just kind of wish to be human again. I think of what I look like and then focus on it."

Taking the advice Brooke closed her eyes and concentrated. She opened them again, but was still a dragon. She whined again and swished her tail.

Etienne laid a hand on her side. "Hold on chere." He looked at Rahne. "Can y' go get her towel from de locker room? If she changes back she'll be naked."

When Rahne return carrying Brooke's blue towel Etienne still hadn't removed his hand and was now stroking Brooke's head. "Calm down chere, y' can do dis." She closed her eyes to try again, trying to visualize herself. It helped that Etienne was there lending his support in the back of her mind.

When she opened her eyes again, she quickly grabbed the towel from Rahne and wrapped it around herself. "Thank you!" She gave Logan and Rahne a quick grin. When she turned around to face Etienne, he was standing up leaning on the wall. "Thank you too." She gave him a peck on the cheek before grabbing Rahne's hand and dragging her off to the girl's locker rooms.

Logan grunted and looked at Etienne, remembering that day in the Professor's office. "She's sure something."

Etienne was still staring after the girls. "Oui."


	12. Bouncing Round the Room

**Disclaimer:** looks around cyber space Think the lawyers would notice if I didn't do a disclaimer? Oh well, old habits die-hard. I still don't own the X-men, nor do I own the rights to "Bouncing Round the Room" by Phish, and if you haven't heard it, find it. I promise it will make you bounce around!

**Author's Note**: **Beware**, major fluff is in this chapter!! Okay, the following is a little explanation of exactly how I think Brooke's shifting ability works. If you have any questions/comments, just put 'em in a review and I'll answer in the next chapter.

Imagine you have a human made of putty, and stretched it out until you could form a dragon. That's basically it. The bones and flesh stretches and reforms to accommodate the increased length and addition of wings. The heat they feel before the transformation is their cells expending a hug amount of energy in order to handle the transition. Like a bird, dragon bones are thin and filled with lots of air, which enables them to fly. . When morphed into any animal form, the animalistic side of the human brain has more control than the rational "human" side. (Consider Wolverine even though he doesn't truly morph, but his animal side is stronger than most humans.) This explains why they both tend to get enraged really easy and have to constantly battle against "baser" urges. Using Wolverine as an example again, only he's had A LOT more experience at handling his emotions than Brooke has. (Oh! Do I sense a little foreshadowing in that last comment?)

V.V.V.V.V.V.V

Later that afternoon, Etienne was returning to his room when he stopped outside of Brooke's door. There was a lot of loud music and banging going on inside. He knew from their link that she was in an extremely good mood, so he decided to take a chance and poked his head into her room. What he saw literally had him speechless. She was dancing around her room singing a song whose lyrics oddly enough, seemed to include the words "bouncing round the room" many times. He started laughing uncontrollably, causing her to stop momentarily and stare at him in surprise.

"How long have you been watching?"

He grinned bemusedly at her. "Long enough t' wish I had a camera."

She merely stuck her tongue out at him. "What can I say, I'm happy!" At that point she stood on her hands and started walking across her room upside down.

"Chere, y' okay?" He was getting exasperated because she wouldn't stay still long enough to carry on a conversation.

"I'm fine, why?"

He stepped into the room and shut the door. "Y' acting weird. What's going on?"

She stopped and sighed, looking at him conflictedly. "If I tell, you have to promise not to tell anyone else, and I mean anyone."

He sat on her bed, getting a bad feeling. "As long as y' ain't on drugs o' somet'in like dat."

She rolled her eyes. "That's the problem. I'm not on my drugs."

"WHAT?"

"Oh please, I meant prescription drugs, not the illegal kind." She went to her desk and grabbed a piece of paper. "I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder three years ago. Do you know what that is?"

He shook his head. "I heard o' it, but don't know 'xactly what it is."

She nodded and drew a straight line lengthwise on the paper. She labeled above the line positive, and below the line negative. "Okay, then I'll explain." She drew a small wavy line that used the straight line as its center. "This wavy line represents normal people's emotions. You have small periods of positive and negative emotions that usually last minutes or at most a couple hours." She then drew a second wavy line whose peaks and dips were much bigger than the previous line. "This second line is people with bipolar disorder. Due to chemical imbalances in our brains, we have much longer periods of positive and negative emotions that last hours or at most several weeks."

He studied her drawing. "So y' in a positive period right now?"

She nodded. "It's called a maniac episode. That's why I'm acting so weird in your opinion. There are also other symptoms besides the excessive good mood such as distractibility, restlessness, impulsitivity, and insomnia."

He looked at her. "What happens in de negative periods?"

She glanced down at the ground before returning his gaze. "Appetite loss, fatigue, agitation, trouble concentrating, and severe depression."

"Why aren't y' taking de meds anymore?"

She shrugged and looked guilty. "I ran out and decided to try not taking them. I don't like taking them if I can help it."

"Does de Professor know 'bout dis?"

She cocked her head. "I would think so since he has copies of my medical files and psych evaluations." She studied him. "You don't mind, do you?"

His mind was racing with the information, but he shook his head. "Non. Surprised, but not upset."

She grinned, glad he was taking it so well. "I think I feel some impulsitivity coming on."

"Oh really?" He watched her amusedly, wondering what she was planning.

"Yeah." She grabbed his shirt and pushed him on the bed where he landed on his back. "Definitely." She put a leg on either side of his chest and used her weight to hold him down on the bed. When he tried to grab her she pushed his hands down onto the bed as well. "This could be fun."

"Now dat y' got me, what are y' going t' do wit me?" He was intrigued by her confidence.

She leaned down and grinned. "Wait and see." She slowly leaned closer and kissed him, only stopping to come up for air. "Well, that was pretty good."

"Pretty good? Is dat all y' ..." He tried to act offended but she kissed him before he could finish. "Hmm?" She was sucking on his ear, making it really hard for him to think rationally. He realized she was unbuttoning his shirt and placed his now free hands on her waist, pulling her shirt over her head. She grinned at him and unbuckled his belt to trail kisses down his chest and waist. Both of them were so absorbed that they hadn't noticed the pupils of their eyes had altered. He groaned and rubbed a thumb across her nipple, making it harden to a peak. When he tried to flip them over, she resisted, shaking her head. Leaning down she nipped at his neck. In retaliation he grabbed her and pulled her down on top of him.

"Hey Brooke, would you like to... Oh God, I'm sorry!" Jubilee stood in the open doorway staring with an open mouth at the two, half clothed, on the bed.

Brooke sat up and turned to Jubilee. "Would I like to what?"

Jubilee was now as red as Brooke's hair. "Um, would you like to go swimming with everyone, but your obliviously busy." She started to shut the door.

"Sure, I'll go." She turned to look down at Etienne who was furious for the interruption. "You want to go?"

"I can t'ink o' somet'in better t' do." He frowned at Jubilee, who was studying the floor at her feet.

"Oh come on, it'll be fun. Besides, I'm not the one who forgot to lock the door."

He grumbled. "Not like I had any warning 'bout what y' were planning t' do."

She looked at him with puppy-dog like pleading eyes. "Please?" Pretty please with a cherry on top?"

He sighed, unable to withstand her pleading. "Oui, but y' going t' owe me for dis."

She smiled and kissed him. "I knew there was a reason I love you." She could hear Jubilee gasp in the background. "Jubilee, unless you want to get a peek, I suggest you shut the door." As soon as she heard the sound of it closing she jumped off the bed. "Meet you downstairs?" He nodded and let himself out.

V.V.V.V.V.V.V

Etienne was sitting poolside watching everyone else play in the water. Jubilee had talked Bobby into making a giant water slide formed of ice that all the girls were fighting to go sliding down. It would have been hilarious if he hadn't been absorbed in his thoughts. He kept replaying the events from earlier in his mind. Brooke had kissed him and used the big 'L' word. Did it mean she really cared about him? He couldn't help but think the empathic link they shared was influencing her, or possibly it was the lack of medications talking. He shook his head. That was a whole other bunch of problems that he didn't feel up to dealing with today. The positive periods he didn't think would be a problem. The look on her face when she had described the symptoms of the negative times led him to believe that they were pretty bad. Were they up to handling it? Someone sitting in the chair next to his caught his eye and he turned to see Remy sitting down.

"Bonjour. I heard y' knee is benefiting from a new form o' physical therapy."

"Dat fille squeal louder dan any pig I ever met." Etienne glared at an oblivious Jubilee whose back was turned.

"Oui, but maybe next time y' lock de door, no?" Remy was having a hard time not laughing at the look on Etienne's face.

"I'm not talking 'bout it wit' you."

"Fine, but a word t' de wise, avoid Logan till he calms down. He's a little overprotective o' de femmes."

Etienne groaned. "Dat all I need, 'specially since I can't walk away."

V.V.V.V.V.V

**joel'sgirl8**: Why thank you!

**cajuns-and-aussies-r-sexy:** I love your name. There is this guy from Australia where I work, and I LOVE it when he calls me! Thanks for the vote of confidence. Now if only more people would review.

**Special Thanks** to my beta reader, who has almost finally caught up with my output! Now if he can only catch up with what I've already written but haven't posted yet!


	13. Plans & a Picnic

Disclaimer: I do not own the X-Men. Do ya'll ever get tired of reading that?

Author's Note: Some fluff in this chapter too! Not too much though. Oh heck, what do I know? Just be warned it's a little bit lemony. Of course, what is the big difference between lemon and fluff?

V.V.V.V.V.V.V

The next day Brooke was just finishing up an email to her parents when Etienne poked his head in her room. "Busy chere?" She turned around in the chair to face him. "Can't you ever knock?"

He tried to look hurt. "If y' didn't want company why isn't y' door locked?"

She sighed and shook her head. "You'll never learn. What do you want?"

He grinned. "Since de end o' summer is fast approaching, I figured we could go on a picnic down at de lake."

She looked down and he could tell she was upset. "What's wrong?" He walked in and closed the door, sitting on the bed to face her.

She sighed. "I haven't decided what to do about school yet."

He nodded. "Do y' still want t' go back home?" He secretly dreaded her answer, but he needed to know.

She shook her head. "I can't go back home yet. I still can't control my powers very well. I was thinking of staying here and attending the community college in town." She looked at him worriedly. "It'll take a couple years to get the basics I need and after that I can transfer the credits anywhere."

He breathed out, just then realizing he had been holding his breath. He had been so afraid she was going to say she was leaving. "If dat's what y' really want t' do, go for it."

She studied him. "What are you going to do?"

He grinned at her. "Worried bout not spending enough time wit' me since you'll be going t' college?"

She rolled her eyes at him. "As if! It was just a simple question."

He got serious. "I don't know yet."

"Xavier is going to make you go to school."

He nodded. "Yeah, I already discussed it wit' him. We're waiting on de test results t' come back befo' deciding anyt'ing."

She looked at him in surprise. "What test results?"

He looked slyly at her. "De N' York State GED Exam."

Her mouth dropped open. "What? When did you take that?"

"Bout a week an' a half ago."

"But why?"

He shrugged. "Took a couple night classes back home. Figured I don't need t' go t' high school since dey weren't a problem. De Professor agreed an' helped me arrange t' take de GED t' prove it."

"You do realize Remy isn't going to like it? He's going to miss not having you around to bug all day."

Etienne laughed. "He won't mind a bit. Dat way he gets t' follow Rogue around."

She smiled and he could tell she was feeling better. "So, is that offer for a picnic still open?"

He nodded. "Sure is."

"Then you go make the sandwiches and I'll change into my bathing suit and grab a couple towels and a blanket."

He grinned and before she could move away, gave her a peck on the cheek.

V.V.V.V.V.V.V

When they got down to the lake, they had the entire stretch of beach to themselves. Brooke looked out at the swimming platform anchored out in the water about 300 feet from the beach. "How about a swim before we eat?"

He followed her gaze. "T' de platform out dere?"

"Yeah, why not?"

He grinned. "Y' want t' race?"

"Hey, I grew up 15 minutes from the beach city boy. Do you really think you can beat me?"

He smirked. "Yeah. What am I going t' get when I win?"

She thought for a minute and then grinned back. "How about a kiss, and I don't mean a peck on the cheek."

His smirk changed into a leer. "I t'ink dat's just fine."

They lined up at the edge of the water. "Okay, on the count of three. One, two, three!"

Both of them ran until the water was hip deep and then dived in. Both of them stayed neck-in-neck until about half way when Brooke started to slowly pull ahead. She stayed slightly ahead of him for the next 50 feet. When they got closer to the platform, Etienne closed the distance. They had 15 feet, then 10. Brooke slapped her hand on the platform only to look over and see Etienne do the same thing. "Well, it seems we have a tie."

He nodded, not taking his eyes off of her. "Oui."

She licked her lips. "So who gets the prize?"

He reached out and pulled her to him, turning so that she was sitting on the underwater steps that led from the water to the platform surface. "I t'ink we both share de prize."

She was busy staring at his mouth. "Yeah, that sounds good."

He grinned and slowly leaned in, touching his lips to hers gently. When she offered no resistance he deepened the kiss, causing her to sigh as he pulled away.

He pulled her off the step and into the water, wrapping her legs around his waist. "Guess I'm not such a bad kisser, no?"

She wrapped her arms around his neck. "Mm hmm. Suppose you want to make up for yesterday?"

He was more than happy to oblige her, trailing kisses down her neck and using his thumbs to tease her nipples. She moaned and tilted her head, giving him better access to continue his ministrations, feeling like she was on fire. She ran her hands through his hair, knowing what she was doing to him and loving it. Suddenly, they both froze as they heard someone yelling their names. They both looked back to the beach only to see what appeared to be Kitty, Kurt, Rahne and Sam waving their arms to get their attention.

"Merde!" Etienne reluctantly let Brooke go, turning to wave back to the beach that they had seen the others.

"Talk about bad timing." Brooke sunk low in the water so that no one would notice her fixing her bikini. "I suppose we better go back."

He sighed. "We better take our time or everybody is going t' know what we were doing out here."

She grinned and ran her hands down the front of his pants, feeling the bulge and causing him to suck his breath in. "Get a little excited did we?"

"Witch!" Without warning he dunked her under the water. She came up sputtering and cursing while he laughed.

"Jerk!" She hit him with a wall of water that he inhaled, making him choke. They proceeded to have a water fight, which left both of them sputtering their way back to the beach.

By the time they reached land, everyone else had made themselves comfortable. "Like, we never thought you guys were going to come out of the water."

Brooke laughed. "We weren't expecting company."

"Well, we figured you guys had a good idea. You don't mind, do you?" Kitty looked at them looked worriedly.

"Nope, the more the merrier." Brooke joined Etienne on their blanket and grabbed a sandwich. "Hey, roast beef!"

He poked her with a bag of chips. "I know that's your favorite kind of sandwich meat."

"Your too good."

"Keep dat up an' I'll get a swelled head."

"Thought you already had one of those." At the sound of muffled laughter Brooke turned around to look at Kitty and Kurt. "What?"

Kitty just shook her head unable to stop laughing. Kurt stood up quickly. "I think I vill go swimming." He made an undignified escape before Brooke could say anything else that he didn't need to hear.

"I t'ink y' embarrassed him chere."

Brooke looked from Etienne to Kitty. "I didn't know he was such a prude. I'll apologize when he comes back."

Kitty looked at Brooke. "He's not a prude, he just grew up sheltered. I had to give him his first kiss he was so nervous."

"You did not!"

She nodded. "Sure did. I thought he was going to have a heart attack."

Brooke laughed. "Got a watch?" When Kitty nodded affirmative, she continued. "Can you let me know in twenty minutes so I can flip?"

"Sure."

"Thanks." She lay back on the blanket next to Etienne. "This makes me think of home, except I should be able to hear the ocean."

"Y' can go home an' visit." Etienne rolled over on his stomach to look into her face. "De Professor don't keep us locked up here y' know."

She gazed at him, pondering. "I think I'll call my parents when we get back and see if they have any time before school starts. I know Dad's school begins after ours."

"Your Père's in school?"

She smirked at him. "In a manner of speaking. He teaches high school math."

"What about your Maman?

"She's a nurse."

"Hmmm." He leaned over to nuzzle her neck.

"Would you like to meet them?" She held her breath, half expecting him to say no.

He lifted his head up and considered. "I think I can be encouraged." He grinned at her. "It could be fun."

She let her breath out not knowing she had been holding it. "Cool."


	14. Phone Home

**Disclaimer**: I don't own the rights to the X-Men. Blah Blah Blah.

V.V.V.V.V.V.V

Brooke called her parents that night. The phone range twice before her mom picked it up.

"Hey honey. How are you doing?"

"I'm fine Mom. I wanted to ask you a question."

"Shoot."

"I was thinking of coming home for a few days before I go back to school. Would you and Dad be able to take some time off?"

She heard her mom laughing over the phone. "What?"

"Your father and I were just talking about coming to New York in about a month to see you. We were also going to spend some time with your Uncle Ken and Aunt Cynthia while we were up there."

"How long are ya'll planning on staying for?"

"We looked into plane tickets already. The best time seems to be the first week of September, I think Labor Day weekend."

"Do you have a hotel yet?"

"No, we haven't made reservations."

"Why don't you stay here?

"We would hate to impose. Besides, I doubt Professor Xavier has room with all the students you keep telling us about."

"No, let me ask him. We just finished building a new wing, so we have tons of extra space now."

"If you have to ask him, we'd only stay a night. That gives us basically two days with you and three with your Aunt and Uncle."

"Let me go ask him and I'll call you back."

"I really wish you wouldn't ask him, it's no problem to get a hotel."

"No, this way you won't have to worry about driving and you can spend all your time with me."

"Okay, fine. Just don't say I didn't warn you when he tells you no."

"I love you Mom."

"I love you too dear."

Brooke hung up the phone and walked to the Professor's office. She figured she could at least ask, after all, the worst he could say would be no. She knocked on the door.

::Come in Brooke.::

She opened the door and walked up to the desk. "Hey Professor, I wanted to ask you a question."

"What is it?"

She looked at him and took a deep breath. "My parents are coming to New York for Labor Day weekend to visit me and my Aunt and Uncle who live upstate. I was wondering if they could stay here one night.

He took a minute to consider her question before replying. "I don't see why not. Would you like for me to call and invite them to stay?

She smiled at him happily. "That would be great! Do you need the number?"

Five minutes later she came out of the Professor's office with all the details settled. Her parents would fly in and spend the first few days with her Aunt and Uncle, arriving at the mansion on Friday night and they would stay two nights to fly back home on Sunday afternoon.

The first person she ran into was Kitty who was with Kurt in the kitchen eating a snack. "Hey guys! Guess what!"

"Vat?" Kurt looked up from the Twinkie he had stolen from McCoy's stash.

"My parents are coming to visit in a month! Isn't that great?"

Kitty squealed. "Like, that is so awesome! We can take your Mom shopping!"

Just then Logan and Remy walked into the kitchen from the garage. "What is so awesome? We could hear you in the garage."

Kitty turned to Logan. "Brooke's parents are coming to visit in a month."

"Professor X knows about this?" Logan grabbed a couple beers from the refrigerator and handed one to Remy.

"Yeah, I asked him first."

"Guess that means you guys will have to clean this place up. I better go find the duty roster and make some changes." He took his beer and wandered out.

Brooke groaned. "Great, now everybody is going to blame me for whatever evil he can cook up."

V.V.V.V.V.V.V

**Author's Note**: I have to admit, I woke my husband up the other morning to take the dog out and then apologized to him IN FRENCH for smacking him in the head on accident. I don't speak French! Do you have any idea how freaky that was once I realized what I just did without any thought on my part? I think reading all the Remy/Rogue fanfics I can find is starting to have an effect on me. AHH! Anybody else have that problem?


	15. Kill Quicksilver

**Disclaimer**: Still don't own the X-Men or Marvel. What rotten luck!

V.V.V.V.V.V.V

A week later, it was a slow Saturday night. Rogue, Kurt, Etienne, Remy, Kitty, Brooke, Jean and Scott were the only ones still at the mansion. The older adults had all left for a conference in New York City. The younger X-Men had all left en masse to go see the newest movie currently out in town. "So like, what do you guys want to do?" Kitty looked at Rogue and Jean.

"Why don't we send the guys into town to get a couple movies and a pizza while we make some snacks here?" Jean looked at the other two girls.

Just then Brooke walked into the kitchen. "What are ya'll talking about?"

"Like, Jean wants to send the boys for movies and pizza."

Brooke shrugged. "Sounds good to me. I want sausage and banana peppers on my pizza though."

Rogue made a face. "Sausage Ah can understand but banana peppers? Ugh! Ah want just plain pepperoni."

::Scott! We want you and the other guys to make a pizza and movie run.::

"Hey guys, Jean says the girls want to watch a movie here and eat pizza." Scott looked at Kurt and Etienne where they were playing Playstation in the Rec Room.

"Bon. I want meat lovers."

Kurt agreed with Etienne. "Jah, meat lovers would be gut!"

::Jean, we'll take a couple of those meat lover's pizzas. You want to go ahead and order them?::

::Sure thing. Kitty's calling now.::

"Ok guys, we have to go and find a couple movies." Scott and the others walked into the garage where they found Remy working on his bike.

"De femmes are sending us t' get a movie an' some pizza. Coming?" Etienne looked at his cousin.

"Sure t'ing." Gambit walked over to the sink and washed the grease off his hands. He and the other guys piled into the X-jeep with Scott driving. They got to the movie rental place with no problems.

"How about dis von?" Kurt held up the latest hack-and-slash horror movie, Freddy vs Jason.

"I don't think the girls would go for that, what about this?" Scott held up Save the Last Dance.

"Brooke would like dis one better." Etienne pulled out Underworld.

"Jah, dat is a gut movie. Kitty mentioned she vanted to see it." Kurt put his movie back.

Remy walked up with The Prince & Me. "All de femmes love dis one."

Kurt nodded his agreement. "Gut idea. Ve'll score big points vith dem."

Scott agreed with Kurt. "That's it then, we'll get Etienne and Remy's movies."

The four boys were walking back to the jeep when members of the Brotherhood interrupted them. "Well, well, if it isn't the X-Geeks. What you got in the bag?" Before they could move Lance had grabbed the bag from Scott. "Ha, sissy movies. It figures the pansy X-geeks would get sissy movies."

"That's enough Lance. Give us our movies back." Scott was getting annoyed at being called a pansy.

"Oh, I don't know." Lance tossed the bag to Toad. "What ya think Toad?"

Toad looked in the bag. "Ha! How much more wussy can you get?" He hocked one and spit in the bag. "That's what I think of that movie." The other members of the Brotherhood laughed.

All the X-Men were ticked off now. "Dat's enough. Give us de bag back or dere gona be trouble." Gambit stepped forward, taking his cards out of his jacket pocket.

Back at the mansion, the girls were in the kitchen making popcorn and gossiping. "So like, Brooke, do you like Etienne?" Jean and Kitty watched as the other girl blushed.

"I think he's cute."

Kitty giggled. "That eye patch makes him look like a sexy pirate straight out of the movies." Even Rogue had to laugh at how red Brooke got after that remark.

"Yeah, when I first met him I thought he looked like Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean.

Pietro had tried to grab the cards from Gambit who had retaliated by charging one and throwing it at him. Kurt had then jumped on the Blob, using his hands to momentarily blind him. Toad used his tongue to grab Scott's leg and flip him backwards. When Etienne tried to grab the tongue the Blob had retaliated by grabbing Kurt and throwing him at Etienne, knocking both boys on the ground.

"Ha! X-geeks really are wussy!" Lance stood back while Pietro stopped moving long enough to grab the visor from Scott's eyes, forcing him to keep them closed and effectively knocking him out of the fight.

Etienne growled and stood up, kicking out at Pietro as he whizzed past, dodging Gambit's charged cards.

The Toad jumped on Etienne, forcing him to fall on his bad leg. "You X-geeks really suck. Especially the weak one here."

Brooke clutched at her leg. "Ow! That freaking hurt!"

Jean exchanged a worried glance with Kitty and Rogue.

Gambit pulled out his bo-staff and used it to catapult over Toad, kicking him backwards as he landed. "Y' okay?"

Etienne stood back up favoring his leg. "Yeah. Give me y' staff so I can woop dat asshole inta tomorrow." He grit his teeth, feeling the familiar burning sensation beginning to spread across his chest.

Gambit tossed the staff to his cousin, pulling a few more cards out of his jacket as he did so.

Kurt had gotten back up by this time and had teleported to grab Scott's visor from where Pietro had dropped it. "Here, Scott." He handed the visor back.

"Kurt, you grab Toad. I'll take the Blob. Gambit, you and Etienne handle Quicksilver."

Kurt teleported behind Toad, wrapping his tail around his throat and attempting to choke him as he fought to keep Toad's tongue turned away from him. "Gah! You stink vorse up close."

Gambit used a couple of his cards to turn the running Pietro so that he was heading back towards Etienne and himself.

At that moment, Scott used his visor to send a blast at the ground under the Blob's feet, causing him to lose his balance. Pietro was going to fast to avoid the other boy and tripped, sending him flying into Etienne who had the misfortune to be in his way. Both boys fell, Etienne on the bottom, and all the boys heard a loud snap as the still healing bones in his right arm broke.

Etienne was pissed that their planned evening with the girls was being interrupted by the Brotherhood and his leg was throbbing from where he had fallen on it again. Before he even had time to think, Pietro came flying at him and he fell on his bad arm. He could hear the bones snap as he landed wrong. The pain was excruciating, and it didn't help that he was having another one of the heat attacks. Unexpectedly he could feel the bond he had with Brooke flare in the back of his mind, brought to life by his pain. Unable to withstand it anymore, he screamed.

Brooke grabbed her head with both hands and dropped to her knees. "It hurts! Make it stop!" It felt like when she was using her mutant power, but this was even more painful and it seemed like someone was trying to drill a hole in her skull at the same time.

Jean was over in a flash. "Where does it hurt?" She looked over at Kitty. "We need to get her to the Medical Bay."

Everyone froze when they heard the scream from the bottom of the pile. They backed off as Pietro went airborne when he was flung away. Gambit felt his jaw drop as he looked at what had been his cousin. The dragon opened its jaws and hissed, twisting onto its feet and lunging for Pietro.

::Jean, we have a HUGE problem here, somehow Etienne just turned into a dragon like Brooke can.::

::Lead him here, maybe she can calm him down.::

Jean turned to the other girls. "The guys have run into some major problems and are on their way back. We need to get Brooke outside. Rogue, please call the Professor and tell him we are going to need everyone back as soon as they can be here."

Kitty looked at her. "Are you sure we shouldn't just take her to the Med Bay?"

"No, she's right. Something's wrong with Etienne isn't it?" Brooke stood up, unsteady on her feet.

"Pietro, if you value your life run to the mansion." Scott hated helping a member of the Brotherhood, but he figured Etienne would follow. Pietro didn't wait, he turned and pelted down the street, running as if his life depended on it, which it did.

The dragon screamed loud enough to wake the dead on seeing his prey getting away. He launched himself skyward, heading out over the town back towards the mansion.

Brooke shrieked and grabbed her head as she felt the link with Etienne suddenly flare again, causing inconceivable pain. It felt like her skull was going to split open. She felt the change come, the heat spreading as her bones melted and reformed. The other girls backed up as the kitchen was suddenly filled with one very pissed off dragon. Brooke took one look at the other girls who were staring at her in horror and leaped out the window, breaking the glass as she went. She jumped into the sky, clawing for air, aiming for the roof of the mansion. She knew the object of her anger was headed back her way and she wanted a good vantage point from which to pounce.

::Scott, Brooke just morphed too. We have a bigger problem than we thought.::

"Kurt, we need you to teleport us back to the mansion."

Kurt nodded, waiting while Gambit and Scott each grabbed an arm before transporting them back to the mansion. They reappeared on the front drive just in time to see the girls run out of the front door. A growl drew everyone's heads up to see a dragon sitting on the roof of the mansion, outlined in the light of the dying sun.

"What the hell happened?" Rogue came down the steps followed by Kitty.

"The Brotherhood jumped us." Scott was looking back down the road for Pietro.

"That doesn't explain why Brooke went off the deep end!"

Gambit put a hand on her arm. "Chere, Etienne got hurt pretty bad. She must o' felt dat."

"Then where is he?"

At that moment Scott pointed into the air. "He's right there."

Rogue sucked in a breath. "Ya didn't say he was a dragon to!"

At that moment everyone could see the grey blur that was Quicksilver fast approaching. The dragon on the rooftop jumped with a snarl, landing in the driveway forcing him to stop.

V.V.V.V.V.V.V

**Author's Note**: Ha! A cliffy! Feel free to review and let me know what you think.


	16. What have I done?

**Disclaimer**: I do not own the X-Men.

**Author's No**te: This chapter is way lemonier (is that a word?) than the previous ones. If you don't like lemons, skip the section I notated. You'll be able to figure out what happens, I promise.

**mattb3671:** Hey! Thanks for the review! I just wish more people would give OOC fiction more of a chance. **BTW**: If you have not read his Xman is Australian for Mutant, you need to!

V.V.V.V.V.V

Pietro halted and stared in horror. How did the dragon get in front of me? He heard a loud thud and looked around only to see a second dragon behind him. "Hey! Help me!" He could see the X-geeks standing over by the mansion. Just then the dragon behind him hissed, and was answered by the dragon in front.

Etienne looked at the other dragon that was facing off in front of him, trying to steal his prey (anger). It replied with a hiss. He growled and mantled his wings in a threat gesture.

Brooke faced off against Etienne. She didn't know the boy he had been chasing, but guessed he must be one of the bad guys. She looked at Etienne again, the pounding in her head had receded only slightly since she shifted, making it was hard to think. He outweighed her by at least 100 pounds while in this form, and she doubted she could take him in a fight. Suddenly he charged, she threw herself to the side but he still slashed her thigh with his claws. She used her tail like a whip and cracked him across the neck and shoulder, drawing blood. He hissed at her before charging again. This time she met his attack, using her wings to bash him in the head, which made him retreat, shaking his head like a dog as he did so. She could feel the fury and bloodlust getting worse as both of them got caught up in the fight and the link only served to heighten the feelings. She had to get him away from everyone else to calm down, but how?

The other X-Men were all staring in shocked awe at the sight of the two dragons fighting in front of them. Just then Jean came out to join them. "The Professor is about 15 minutes away. What did I miss?" She looked over and did a double take. "Wow!"

Kitty nodded. "Like, that's the understatement of the year."

Pietro chose at that moment to foolishly move and try to get away. He instantly drew Etienne's attention, who seeing his prey getting away, tried to grab him. Brooke saw what was happening and using her head as a battering ram, threw Etienne onto his side, allowing Pietro to escape. He got to his feet, his rage battering at Brooke's mind. She didn't hesitate but jumped into the air, heading for the opposite side of the property and the lake to give her some space away from him. It took him a split second to realize what she was doing, and then he was after her with a snarl.

Everyone looked at Scott. "Like, should we follow them or wait for the Professor?"

He shrugged helplessly. "Lets split up. The girls can stay here and wait for the Professor and the others. Guys, we'll follow them."

Jean spoke up. "No, you'll need our help to find them. We'll come with you."

**OKAY SKIP THIS PART IF YOU DON'T LIKE LEMONS!**

Etienne caught up with Brooke in the air and dived, forcing her to back-wing in the air to avoid a collision. He pulled up and turned, catching her this time, forcing her down towards the beach by the lake. She landed hard and froze, instinct taking over in the face of a superior predator. Etienne landed nearby and screamed, understanding by her posture that she acknowledged defeat. He stretched out his head and sniffed, it was his female! The smaller female dragon backed up, unsure what he was going to do. He rumbled low in his chest and bobbed his head, beginning a ritual reptiles the world over would have recognized. The other dragon took a step forward and sniffed him, recognizing the scent. She moved forward to rub her head along his neck, using her tongue to lick daintily at his jaw (approval). He nuzzled her side with his nose before moving behind her. He moved to cover her, snaking his head down to bite her shoulder where it met her neck to hold her still. He penetrated with one thrust; their link exploded, twisting and then snapping back, binding the two of them together as their bodies joined.

Etienne returned to consciousness slowly. He rubbed the back of his hand across his mouth and rolled over, only to be horrified when he saw Brooke laying next to him bleeding from a bite mark on her shoulder. He scrambled over and felt for a pulse, only to have her eyes open in shock as she scooted backwards from him.

"What happened?"

"Don't touch me!"

He looked at her, the memories slowly clicking together in his brain. "Oh God." He turned away and threw up, finally realizing why he could taste blood.

**OKAY THAT'S OVER!**

Brooke scrambled up and started to run back to the mansion, only to stop short when she collided with Remy. "Give me your coat." He took one look at her and complied, handing it over with no comment. She put it on and then continued running, passing the others who had come up the trail after Gambit.

Jean looked at Scott. "Kitty and I will go check on Brooke." Both girls turned back to the mansion.

Gambit walked slowly up to his cousin who was on his hands and knees.

"Can y'move?" Gambit crouched down, getting worried.

Etienne looked at him and the pain in his eyes made Gambit wince. "Est-ce que je, comment je l'ai violée vais jamais lui faire face encore ?" **1**

Gambit shook his head. "Vous n'étiez pas vous-même. Il établira." **2 **

Etienne shook his head and sighed raggedly. "Est-ce que je de la protéger, et comment j'ai promis peux faire cela si je ne peux pas même la protéger contre me ?" **3**

V.V.V.V.V.V

Jean and Kitty slowly opened the door to Brooke's room. She was curled up on the bed around a pillow, crying, still dressed in Gambit's trench coat. Jean looked at Kitty and they sat on either side. The back of her neck was bloody. Jean looked helplessly at Kitty unsure of what to say. Brooke looked up at that point. "Don't even try to make me feel better. I need to be alone for awhile." Jean opened her mouth only to be cut off. "No, just leave, please." Jean nodded. She and Kitty left, closing the door quietly behind them.

V.V.V.V.V.V

Remy saw Hank and Logan coming towards them across the beach. "Looks like we got company coming."

Etienne didn't even move.

Logan's nose led the two X-Men straight to the two Cajuns. "Heard you had some excitement while we were gone." Hank moved towards Etienne. "Lets get you to the Med Bay so we can get your arm stabilized since it's probably broken."

Etienne looked dazedly down at his arm as if noticing it for the first time. "Oh, yeah." He slowly stood up and allowed McCoy to wrap him in a sheet before following him back to the mansion, not meeting anyone's eyes.

Once in the Medical Bay, Etienne looked at Hank. "So how bad is de arm?"

"You broke both major bones in your arm again, but it appears they're almost healed."

"Dat some good news den."

McCoy watched him. "The injuries you received eight months ago are completely healed. I'm guessing with a little more exercise you will gain full use of your arm back."

Etienne jerked his head up, his eyes wide. "Don't tell anyone dat."

"But why? It's good news."

Etienne shook his head. "If m'oncle ever found out, he'd make me go back t' N' Orleans." He looked down. "I can't do dat. 'Specially not now."

McCoy nodded his head. "I understand your concern. I have to tell the Professor because it deals with what happened earlier, but I will not mention it to anyone else."

Etienne thanked McCoy and left the Med Bay, heading for his room and a shower. When he got to Brooke's door he stopped. He knew she was inside. He leaned against the door, resting his forehead and hand against the hard wood. What could he say to make her feel better? With a sigh he turned and walked into his room, doing his best to block her out of his mind.

V.V.V.V.V.V

The Professor met with Logan, Beast, Storm, Jean, Scott and Gambit in his study. "I would like to know exactly what went on tonight." Taking turns, Jean and Scott explained what had happened. The Professor stopped them at the appropriate places, being specifically interested in what had happened to Brooke and Etienne before they had morphed.

"Interesting. From what your saying it appears that they felt exactly what the other was. When Etienne got angry, Brooke knew something was wrong with the boys. When he fell on his bad leg, she felt his pain. She must have also felt his arm break."

Logan glanced at the Professor. "So if the boy is an empath, how did he suddenly gain her powers?"

"Perhaps the connection they seem to have had something to do with it, but I would need to talk with both of them to find out more."

The Professor turned to McCoy. "So how is he?"

McCoy cleared his throat. "The X-rays I took of his arm show he did indeed fracture bones in his arm during his fight with the Brotherhood. However, somehow they have almost completely healed. From the calcification, it appears the breaks occurred at least a month ago instead of just hours."

Gambit looked startled. "How is dat possible?

McCoy scratched his head. "My hypothesis is that the morphing between dragon and human had something to do with it, probably when the bones and nerves reshaped themselves, but the exact mechanics I can't say without further study."

Xavier nodded. "How is Brooke doing?"

Jean spoke up at this point. "Kitty and I tried to talk with her but she asked us to leave. She's still in her room."

The Professor shook his head. "I would prefer that she speak to someone, but we must respect her wishes for the time being. I will try to get her to talk to me tomorrow and see how we can best help."

V.V.V.V.V.V

**Translations:**

**1.** I raped her, how am I ever going to face her again?"

**2.** You were not yourself. It will work out."

**3**. I promised to protect her, and how can I do that if I cannot even protect her from myself?"


	17. Cat's outa the bag

**Disclaimer:** Yep, I know what your thinking. I still don't own the X-Men.

V.V.V.V.V.V.V 

Gambit cautiously sneaked into the garage. He knew Logan had an alcohol stash at the bottom of his tool chest, and he was planning on borrowing a few things. He pulled out his lock picks from his coat pocket and with a flick of his wrist, had the door open. :Hmm, de tequila, it'll get him drunk faster.: He took the bottle and closed the door, and then made his way silently to his cousin's room.

It had been days since the incident on the beach, and nothing had been resolved. At this point, everyone was being affected by the mood in the mansion. The older students and adults had all made a promise to the Professor not to tell the younger students what exactly had happened, but there were already rumors. Especially when Amara had seen the bite mark on Brooke's neck one morning as she was coming out of the shower. It was hard not to notice that something had happened between Etienne and Brooke, who prior to Saturday had been joined at the hip.

He opened the door to Etienne's room and looked around, noticing the balcony door open and his cousin not in residence. Remy walked outside and looked around.

"What y' want?"

He looked up on the roof and saw Etienne smoking a cigarette. "Come down, Gambit didn't steal Logan's alcohol t' drink it by himself."

"What y' get?"

"Tequila."

Etienne grunted and jumped down, landing on his feet. "Hope y' got enough." He led the way back into his room. He turned around in time to see Remy pull out a bottle, two shot glasses, and a deck of cards out of his pockets. "What are dose fo'?"

"Drinkin' game o' course. Can't jus' waste de alcohol." He grabbed the trashcan and pulled it into position.

His cousin snorted. "Speak fo' y' self."

Remy just looked at him. "Throw de card into de trash o' take a shot. Loser is de one who passes out first."

"Oui. Give me de card den." He took the card Remy handed him and tossed it at the trash only to miss. "Oops, I missed." He poured himself a shot and downed it in one gulp. "Gah! Forgot how bad dis stuff tastes."

Gambit merely smirked and tossed a card into the can. "Y' turn."

Two hours later they had drunk over three-fourths of the bottle, and Etienne was loosing badly. He could barely keep his eyes focused. "Y' know, I hate y'."

Remy, who was still sober, looked at his cousin in surprise. "Why?"

"Y' don't have t' deal wit' having a girl in de back o' y' head all de time." He tossed a card, only to miss again. "Gimme anot'er shot."

"What do y' mean?" Remy had long ago been pouring the alcohol because his cousin couldn't keep his hand steady enough not to spill it.

"Ever since I met her, we got a connection so dat I can feel whatever she is." He gulped the drink down. "Remember dat time I hot wired y' bike an' den told y' I went joy-riding?" When Remy nodded he continued. "I took it t' de store t' pick up some chocolate chip ice cream 'cause she had a craving. Males o' de species just weren't meant t' deal wit' PMS like dat." He shook his head and threw another card.

Gambit stared at his cousin considering. "Can y' feel her now."

"Oui. It's gotten worse since t' other night." Etienne turned and cocked his head to the side, his eyes unfocused. "She's sleeping."

Gambit threw his card and missed, but didn't pour himself a drink. "Have y' told de Professor 'bout dis?"

Etienne blearily turned his head and shook it carefully. "Non. We got enough problems wid' out him buttin in."

"Maybe y' should t'ink about it."

When he didn't get an answer he looked at his cousin, who had passed out on the floor. "Bout time." He pulled the cover from the bed and grabbed a pillow, leaving Etienne to lie on the floor. Then he gathered the bottle and glasses and left, trying to sneak back to his room.

"What you doing Gumbo? And why do I smell tequila?"

Remy froze and turned around around to face Logan. "Gambit was just checking on his cousin."

"Uh huh. Show me the bottle."

Knowing he was about to die, Gambit took the bottle out of his coat.

"That's my brand of tequila." Logan gave him a hard look and then sighed. "Since it was for a good cause, I'll let you get away with it, but don't do it again. He is still underage."

Remy just nodded in complete surprise as Logan passed him to continue down the hallway.

V.V.V.V.V.V.V

The next morning pounding on his door awaked Etienne. He groaned feeling like his head was going to split open. Slowly, moving very carefully so that he wouldn't jar his head or unsteady stomach, he moved to the door and opened it. A way to perky looking Kitty was standing there.

"Logan sent me to get you for Danger Room practice."

He muttered something impolite under his breath and slammed the door in her face. That was a big mistake because the noise set his head to pounding worse than before. He threw his door open and passed a surprised Kitty, barely made it to the bathroom before retching. At least now his stomach was feeling better.

Kitty had walked next door to Brooke's room since she was late also. When Brooke didn't answer she continued down the hallway. As she passed the girl's bathroom, she heard the sounds of someone being sick.

"Brooke, is that you?"

"Yeah. Tell Logan I'm going to be late."

"Do you want me to get Dr. McCoy?"

"No, I'll be fine." Brooke wiped her mouth and looked in the mirror. She looked like hell warmed over. There were huge bags under her eyes from lack of sleep, and she had lost weight since she hadn't eaten in two days. The signs are all there, but I don't want to start taking the medicine again. She brushed her teeth to get rid of the taste in her mouth and left for the Danger Room.

When she got there Logan had already divided everyone up into pairs and they were sparring with staves. "Guess you'll have to spar with me today." She nodded and grabbed a staff from the rack on the wall. She was doing as well as could be expected when fighting Wolverine when she saw Etienne walk in the door. Since her attention was distracted, she didn't notice the blow coming at her head. Wolverine's staff knocked her flying and she fell on the leg Etienne had slashed earlier in the week. The pain stunned her for a moment.

Etienne had just entered the room when he happened to look up and see Wolverine's strike throw Brooke to the floor. He could feel the crack against her skull through their link, and instantly went into a rage. Without consciously thinking about it, he was across the Danger Room, grabbing Wolverine and trying to decide which part of his body he was going to rip off first.

Brooke slowly stood, seeing the tableau when she turned around. She stumbled towards them, ignoring Scott's motions that she stay back out of harms way. As she got closer, she realized Etienne was growling at Logan, who hadn't moved since he was seized. "Put him down."

Etienne turned his head and looked down at her. "He hurt us." His hand tightened on Logan's throat, making him grunt.

Brooke looked past them to where the older X-Men were advancing across the Danger Room. She shook her head, warning them to stay away. She knew if they came closer he would feel it necessary to protect her from them also. "He isn't a threat to us, put him down for me."

He looked at her but didn't move. Abruptly he let go, leaving Logan to stumble to his feet. "Y' should let me kill him."

She shook her head only to sway when she got light headed. "No, you can't kill anyone just because I wasn't paying attention." She put a hand on his arm to steady herself, but because of the loss of blood and lack of food, she passed out.

V.V.V.V.V.V.V

"How is she?" Professor Xavier had come down when he had been notified of the happenings in the Danger Room only to find Logan and Scott waiting for him in the Medical Bay.

McCoy sighed and looked at his newest patient. "She's severely dehydrated, slightly malnourished, suffering from shock and blood loss as well as a probable concussion." He pulled back the cover to reveal four deep gashes down her right thigh. "She's also been hiding these since the occurrence two days ago."

The Professor sighed and shook his head, looking over at the other bed where Etienne was laid out on his back. "And how about him?"

"I don't know. He passed out the same time she did, but physically I can't figure out why."

Xavier turned to Logan. "How are you doing?"

Logan rubbed his neck. "I'll be fine, but you should know a couple things. When he grabbed me, Etienne's eyes were slitted like Brooke's are when she shape-shifts. He also mentioned the fact that, 'he hurt us,' when she was trying to talk him into letting me go."

Xavier nodded. "This proves what we already guessed, they seem to have some kind of an unconscious empathic link." He looked at Hank. "I would like to speak to them when they wake up."


	18. Conference

Disclaimer: I don't own the X-Men.

V.V.V.V.V.V

Brooke and Professor Xavier were in his study discussing the events of the last few days.

"What can you tell me about the other night?"

She stared out the window. "I remember feeling Etienne and the other boys were in trouble." She glanced at the Professor and noticed he didn't seem surprised. "I could feel him in the back of my head, I remember the sensation of his arm breaking, and the pain was horrible. I just got angry and snapped."

Xavier studied the girl in front of him. "Does that make you nervous?"

She looked back at him. "Does what make me nervous?"

"The fact that you could feel him in your head."

She laughed at him. "No."

"Why not?"

She looked nervous for a second. "Because I always can." She looked down at the floor, embarrassed.

"When did it start?"

"Since I met him after he had his heart attack. She looked up at the Professor. "It started out just as flashes when we touched, but it's gotten stronger until lately I can feel it all the time. We originally thought it was because of his empathy, but now I don't know."

The Professor considered what he had been told. "Would you mind if I studied this connection the two of you have?"

She shrugged. "Will it hurt?"

"No. All you have to do is relax."

She nodded and leaned back in the chair.

V.V.V.V.V.V

Etienne had joined the rest of the X-Men at lunch. He grabbed his plate and moved to the last seat located between Rogue and Kitty. He let the conversation roll over him, feeling drained from the excitement of the last few days. Kitty was telling Rogue about her date with Kurt they had planned for the next day. Bobby and Evan were discussing if it was feasible to build a skateboard ramp made of ice in August. Personally he thought the ice would melt too fast, but it sounded like they were going to try it anyway.

Kitty tapped him on the shoulder. "Like, where is Brooke?"

He looked at her. "I t'ink she's still wit' de Professor."

"Do you think we should make her a plate before everything is gone?"

He started to answer her when pain hit him like a bolt of lightening. He half stood, clenching his jaw and eye shut, digging his fingers in the table to stay on his feet. Feeling the heat spreading again like it had two nights ago. Mon Dieu, not again. He fought against the sensation, wanting to stay human.

"Etienne? Like, are you okay?" The conversations around them ceased as everyone noticed what was going on.

Something was wrong; he knew that deep in his gut. He shook the pain off and looked up, locking eyes with Kitty.

She gasped, his eyes were slitted, just like she had been told they were yesterday when he attacked Logan.

He stepped back, knocking his chair over. "Damn it." He could feel rage boiling up and welcomed it. She was supposed to be safe with the Professor, not being subjected to this! Gambit tried to grab his arm from across the table but he shook it off, turning to head down the hallway towards the Professor's study.

"Look!" Kurt and Gambit looked to where Kitty was pointing at the table. Four parallel gashes had been dug into the table on either side of Etienne's plate. Without another word they both took off after him, barely rounding the corner in time to see him throw the Professor's door open.

"What de hell did you do?" Etienne stepped into the room, moving towards Brooke who was slouched in a chair before the desk. He growled when he saw her eyes were closed and she wasn't moving. He focused his attention back on the Professor.

Xavier was surprised when Etienne barged into his study; he was still recovering from the backlash when he had mentally touched the link between Brooke and Etienne. "She told me about the bond between the two of you."

Etiennedidn't move. "Y' meddling in t'ings dat don't concern you."

The Professor studied him. "My students always concern me." He saw McCoy and Logan watchfully slip into the room to stand behind Gambit and Kurt who were stationed in front of the doorway.

Etienne moved to stand in front of the desk, challenging the Professor. "Den do y' make it a point t' hurt y' students when y' trying t' help dem?"

McCoy chose that moment to try and get closer to Brooke to see if she needed medical attention. He didn't get within three feet before Etienne turned around, eyes blazing.

"Don't touch her."

"McCoy is only trying to help her, you need to calm down." The Professor tried to sound reasonable.

"De pain has her too close t' changing. She might take him as a threat, an' I might not be able t' control her if she does." He could hear an exclamation of surprise behind him.

"What about you?"

He locked his gaze on the Professor. "I'm hanging on wit' tooth an' nail." He bent down and ran his finger down Brooke's face.

"You can control it?"

He laughed harshly. "I wouldn't call it control, more like having a forest fire run over y' an trying not t' fall cause if y' do, dat it'll be de end o' it."

"You can feel her transformations?"

Etienne nodded. "Yeah, I can feel everyt'ing." He started when he felt a hand on his arm. She opened her eyes and blinked at him, trying to focus. "Hurts." She closed her eyes again. Etienne focused his attention on the girl in front of him. She just leaned against the chair, unable to move for fear of jarring her head. "Henri, we will follow y' back t' de Medical Bay." He looked at Kurt. "Can y' get the mattress from her bed and teleport it down dere? Kurt nodded and bamfed away. He picked Brooke up and looked back at the Professor. "We finish dis later."

Logan and Gambit moved out of the way as they left heading downstairs. Logan turned back to the Professor. "Well Chuck, what was all that about?"

"I need to think about what I saw more, but I think both of their powers somehow meshed to link them together. The link gradually grew stronger but was in existence only when they spent time together. Think of a telephone. You feel closer to the person on the other end when you're on it, but you can hang up at will. Two nights ago, the pain and emotions both of them were experiencing acted like an overload on an electrical circuit. In order to protect the link, it picked up the phone for Etienne and gave him the use of Brooke's mutant abilities to drain off some of the power. The Professor broke off and closed his eyes. "The only problem is that as a dragon, Brooke is ruled by her emotions and instinct. When instinct kicked in, the link solidified and is now permanent. In essence, they cannot hang up the phone and end the conversation.

"So y' mean she will permanently be an empath an' he will be able t' shape-shift? Can y' fix it?"

The Professor sighed and shook his head. "Without breaking the link, I don't think so and if the events that just occurred are any indication, he's going to fight that suggestion, if it could be done at all."


	19. In the Infirmary

Disclaimer: I don't own, nor do I ever have hope of owning the rights to the X-Men.

V.V.V.V.V.V

While Professor Xavier was explaining his hypothesis on the workings of the link between Etienne and Brooke, the two in question were down in the Med Bay with Dr. McCoy. Kurt had already dropped off the mattress Etienne had asked him to get earlier, and had disappeared back upstairs.

Etienne was sitting on one of the beds, holding Brooke in a sitting position so that McCoy could examine her, his head resting in the crook of her neck.

The doctor was giving her a quick once-over, checking her pupil response and pulse before changing the bandages on her leg. He saw Etienne shiver. "How are you doing?"

Etienne looked up for the first time since he had sat down. "Been better."

McCoy nodded and moved to examine the bite mark on Brooke's neck. "When did this happen?" He didn't even see Etienne move but found his arm suddenly held.

"I wouldn't touch dat, Henri."

Hank looked up in surprise to see Etienne staring at him intently. He cleared his throat. "Is it only that area?"

Etienne nodded slowly.

Hank considered the two before him. "I hate to put it this way, but in the animal world, mates will often bite each other as part of the mating ritual. It seems like subconsciously, you consider that to be a sign of possession."

Etienne groaned and put his head back down. "What happening t' me?"

McCoy studied his friend. "We want to understand, but can't if you don't tell us. If I may ask, why did you have Kurt bring a mattress down? There are plenty of beds available down here."

He looked up, pain evident on his face. "Dose rooms strong enough t' keep anyone safe in dem in case o' attack, non? What better place fo' a jail cell?"

Hank's eyes widened in surprise. "What do you mean?"

"When I told de Professor I was hanging on by tooth an' nail, I wasn't kidding. Y' need t' hurry dis up."

"I'm done, what do you need me to do?"

Etienne shifted Brooke in his arms and handed her to McCoy. "Take her." He walked into the room and pushed what equipment he could out into the hallway, moving the mattress to the center of the room. "Bring her here and put her down." McCoy did as he asked and stepped back. Etienne looked at him. "When y' come in here, make sure I'm awake. I don't want t' attack y' on accident." When Hank nodded in understanding he closed his eyes. "Watch." In the space of two heartbeats, a large brown dragon was in his place. He curled himself carefully around Brooke who was already asleep and snagged the cover with a claw, pulling it over her. He then laid his head down and closed his eyes with a heavy sigh. Shaking his head, McCoy turned the lights off and closed the door.

V.V.V.V.V.V.V

After dinner that night, Gambit went to go visit Hank in the Medical Lab carrying leftovers. "How are dey?"

"Come see for yourself." He led the way down the hallway to one of the largest rooms where the door was still closed.

Remy looked in the window to see Brooke asleep on a mattress watched over by his cousin who was leaning against a wall. He looked up and seeing them in the window, waved.

"You can go in if you want, just no sudden moves. He's still twitchy, just returned to being humanoid in the last 10 minutes or so. It's quite fascinating really."

Remy nodded absently and opened the door. His cousin stood and came over.

"Brought y' some dinner an' some news."

"T'anks. I'm starving." Etienne sat on the edge of the mattress. "Y' can sit down, I don't bite." He looked pained. "Well, at least I won't bite y'."

Gambit sat next to him on the mattress, their backs to the still sleeping Brooke.

"So, everybody upstairs hate me yet?"

Remy shook his head. "Dey don't hate y' and y' know it. Don't understand what's goin on, sure, but dey don't hate you."

"Den what's de news?"

"De Professor figured out a few t'ings bout y' link y' should know." He continued, explaining the Professor's hypothesis.

Brooke was in a state between awake and asleep, halfway listening to the conversation. She was thinking about the incident earlier and what Dr. McCoy had told Etienne. There was something she was missing. Why did Etienne overreact possessively to everything, yet she wasn't bothered in the least? Like McCoy had said, the males of most species were often more protective of the females, but humans had evolved past that point. Human relationships depended on both partners treating each other as equals. What was different about the two of them beyond the obvious? It hit her like bolt of lightening. She wanted to laugh; it was almost too easy of an answer.

Remy and Etienne turned around when they heard Brooke move. She slowly stood up and stumbled over to land on her hands and knees between the two of them. When Remy put out a hand to help her, Etienne growled.

"Leave Gambit." Brooke looked up at him and he sucked in his breath. The pupils of her eyes were slitted and he swore she had fangs. He glanced at Etienne to find him looking down, his hands clenched into fists, panting hard. "Get out!" He sprang for the door, turning around to close it only to freeze.

As soon as Gambit moved, Brooke grabbed Etienne, pulling him closer to her. He tried to struggle, knowing he was too close to changing and not wanting to hurt her, but she wouldn't let him go. With her free hand, she pushed his head to the side, baring his neck. Before he could jerk away, she sank her teeth into the muscle of his shoulder, drawing blood as she did so. He moaned, feeling something twist and pop into place that he hadn't known was damaged with a sense of relief.

Gambit was going to call for help when he saw Brooke let go. She looked up and met his eyes, licking blood from her lips. They both looked at Etienne, who had fallen on his back and hadn't moved. He opened his eyes but didn't move. "Mon Dieu. What was dat?"

Brooke stood. "Figure it out." She walked past Gambit and McCoy who by now had come to stand next to the Cajun. They both stared at her in shock and surprise as she left the Med Bay.

"What happened?"

Etienne sat up and put a hand to his neck, pulling it away to look at the blood on his palm. "She bit me."

McCoy chuckled. "It seems she just marked you."

Etienne groaned and plopped back down on the mattress. "Jus' kill me now."

V.V.V.V.V.V.V.V

Brooke walked into the kitchen to find Rahne, Amara and Kitty just finishing cleaning up after dinner. "Hey guys. Were there any leftovers?" They had become silent as soon as she walked into the kitchen, so it was obvious they had been talking about either her or Etienne.

"Gambit took the last of dinner down to Etienne a moment ago." Kitty put the dishtowel down on the counter and turned around to face Brooke. " How are you feeling?"

Brooke chuckled, thinking of what she had just done downstairs. "I'm doing better." She opened the refrigerator and dug through it, taking out the supplies for a sandwich. "So what's going on that I missed?"

"Like, Rahne and Sam have a date on Saturday." The girls giggled. "Bobby turned his hair green trying to get out the last of the dye this morning. He had to go to school with it like that today."

"Your kidding? The first day of school and his hair was green?" Brooke finished making her sandwich and sat down. "That reminds me, I still need to pick up some supplies before I start on Monday." She tapped her finger on the table, thinking. "You guys free Saturday morning? I need to do some clothes shopping too."

Kitty clapped her hands, this was an excellent opportunity to help Brooke. "That would be great! We can make it a girls outing because Jean just mentioned at dinner that she needs to go also." She turned to look at Amara and Rahne. "Like, you guys going?"

They both nodded. "We'll go find Jubilee and invite her along."

Brooke nodded. "Okay. Kitty, why don't you invite Jean and Rogue then? We'll leave after we get done with the morning Danger Room session."


	20. Making Up

Disclaimer: I don't own the X-Men.

Author's Note: I like the basic idea of song fics, when done right at least. I figured I'd give it a shot.I used 'I Miss You" by Blink 182, which I do indeed put on repeat and listen to endlessly. Needless to say, I don't own the rights to that song.

V.V.V.V.V.V.V

The next day was Friday. The younger students had all left for school, and Scott still hadn't returned from college for the weekend. Brooke was lying on her bed with the stereo turned up. She had gone through most of her CD collection before finally settling on a song that fit her mood. She knew it was probably driving anyone listening nuts; it was on repeat, at least the 9th or 10th repetition.

_Hello there, the angel from my nightmare  
The shadow in the background of the morgue  
The unsuspecting victim of darkness in the valley _

She knew Etienne was feeling guilty about the events earlier in the week. Now that she had time to think about it, she supposed they had both been at fault. They had events in their pasts that made it hard to share their true feelings. She grimaced. They were almost as bad as Remy and Rogue if such a thing was possible. She knew she should go find him and talk, but he had been avoiding her all week like she had the plague.

_We can live like Jack and Sally if we want,  
__Where you can always find me._

She had to laugh at that line. Part of her had been totally conscious of what was going on, and she hadn't bothered to even try to stop him. She could still feel his teeth sink into her shoulder; touching the mark on her neck she shivered. It had been one of the most erotic sensations she had ever experienced, though she would never admit that to anyone.

_We'll have Halloween on Christmas.  
__And in the night we'll wish this never ends,  
__We'll wish this never ends._

Etienne rolled over on his bed and faced the wall. She had been playing that song for at least 20 minutes, over and over again. He stood up; stopping outside her door and taking a deep breath. He put a hand up to the tender area where she had bitten him yesterday. Time to get things over with one way or another. Without knocking, he pushed the door open and stepped into the room.

_I miss you, I miss you  
I miss you, I miss you  
_

She looked up and saw him in the doorway. She got off her bed and walked over to him. When he tried to step back she grabbed his hand and dragged him in the room shutting the door behind. "Hey."

He looked down, noticing she hadn't let go of his hand. "Bonjour."

"Oops, sorry." She let go, taking a step back to give him more space, feeling unaccountably nervous. "So, we need to talk."

_Where are you and I'm so sorry  
I cannot sleep I cannot dream tonight  
I need somebody and always  
_

He nodded. "Yeah, dat occurred to me too." He was feeling nervous enough for both of them, and being able to feel her nervousness wasn't helping any.

She sighed. "I'm sorry for what happened the other day."

He shook his head. "Non, it was my fault."

"No, I knew what you were doing, and I didn't want to stop you."

"Y' know y' are exaggeratin. Y' can't t'ink past emotions when shape-shifted."

"Yeah, well I've had more practice at it than you have."

"It wasn't like I was plannin on suddenly borrowing y' mutant powers o' anything!"

"If you hadn't gotten into a fight over a dumb movie, you wouldn't have needed to!"

_This sick strange darkness, Comes creeping on so haunting every time  
And as I stared I counted, Webs from all the spiders  
_

They stopped, realizing they were yelling at each other over things they had no control over. "I'm sorry." They grinned, having said it at the same time. "Jinx! You can't say anything until I say your name." She tapped her foot and studied him. When he tried to open his mouth she cut him off. "No, let me finish, it's time for some truth between us." He nodded.

"Almost since I arrived, you have been a friend when I really needed one. We found that we have a lot in common, and that made everything even better. You have been willing to just hang out long past the point when most other guys would have pushed for more in a relationship because you thought I wasn't ready. What happened was wrong; not because I didn't want it to happen, but because it was the wrong time and place." She stopped and looked at him worriedly. "I'm done, you can talk now."

_Catching things and eating their insides  
Like indecision to call you, and hear your voice of treason  
_

He just looked at her for a minute, making her fidget. Then he grabbed her hand and pulled her towards him, leaning down to put his head on her shoulder hugging her tightly to him. "While we're being truthful wit' each other, I have a confession." Her eyes got wide. "But I have t' know how y' feel 'bout de link wit' me."

_Will you come home and stop this pain tonight  
Stop this pain tonight  
_

That was the last thing she had expected him to say. "I won't lie, at first I was a little nervous." She shrugged. "But now, I'm used to it. It's kind of comforting to know your watching out for me." She cocked her head and looked at him again. "You did know the link works both ways, right?"

His head shot up and he let go of her. "Y'can feel me?"

She nodded. "Yeah. It was sporadic in the past, but it's been pretty steady since we, well, you know." He stared, quiet, and she wondered if she had said the wrong thing.

"So den de Professor is right, y' getting m' powers too."

She nodded and looked down. "Yeah, but the empathy works only with you. I can't sense anyone else, so it's more like a product of our link instead of me getting your powers."

_Don't waste your time on me,  
__You're already the voice inside my head._

Etienne was thinking furiously. This must be what she was feeling when he had dropped the bombshell on her that they had an empathic link to begin with. He was starting to gain a better understanding of what exactly was happening to them. Together they were empathic, and both of them could shape shift, even if their control was seriously lacking. He also seemed to have an overpowering protective side when it came to her, and if McCoy was right, it was due to the fact that he had already claimed her as his mate. "Why did y' bite me yesterday?"

"You still haven't figured it out?"

"I want t' hear y' say it."

"I claimed you as mine." She looked him full in the face. "I think that's why you've been so overprotective lately. Subconsciously you recognized that we hadn't finished the..." She paused, unsure of how to put it. "…the mating ritual and so part of you believed other males could still move in and try to take me from you." She looked down at the floor again.

"But why?"

"Why what?"

"Why would y' be willing t' do dat fo' me?" He wanted to shake her. If what he believed was correct, she had fused their link when she had bitten him yesterday. They could never be separated now.

She looked at him, hurt showing in her eyes. "What was I supposed to do? Let you go crazy? Or am I so awful you don't want to be stuck with me?" A tear escaped to trail down her cheek.

He looked at her, feeling like an ass for making her cry. "Y' would be willing t' be stuck wit' me fo' de rest o' y' life?" He ran a hand through his hair, her emotions overwhelming in the link between them. He couldn't understand why she would want to tie herself to him. They were only 18 years old for heaven sakes. She still had her whole life ahead of her to find someone perfect for her and settle down.

She turned away from him, her heart breaking into pieces. Taking a deep breath, she unbuttoned her shirt and slid one shoulder off, turning to face him. He sucked his breath in when he saw the fang marks still discoloring the flesh of her shoulder. "So it's okay for you to take what you want, but I can't?" She closed her shirt and walked towards him, pointing a finger at his chest for emphasis. "You started this, and I finished it, and now we're stuck with each other. I love you, and if you think I'm going to let my best friend go slowly crazy just because he's scared of a little commitment, boy do you have a thing coming!" She stopped, the wind coming out of her sails at the stunned look on his face.

_Don't waste your time on me,  
You're already the voice inside my head.  
Miss you, miss you._

He grabbed her arm and pulled her into a hug, quietly resting his head against hers. She could feel his uncertainty and surprise coming through the link. He swallowed, his mouth suddenly bone dry.

"Kiss me."

He needed no other urging, crushing his mouth to hers, feeling her through the link they shared. He broke from the kiss first, breathing hard as her desire hit him like a ton of bricks. She was watching him with a half-smile, seeing his pupils contract until they were mere slits. He could feel her in the back of his head and just the thought made him want to grab her and throw her to the bed. "Y' had better be sure of this chere, dere won't be no turning back if y' don't leave." It took iron will to keep still, waiting for her answer.

In response to his challenge, he felt her kiss the base of his throat before using her tongue to lick lightly at his ear. He threw his head back and gave in, projecting his feelings back to her down the link, feeling her do the same until neither could tell who was feeling what. He crush her lips with his own as his desire and need matched her own, unable to think rationally about anything beyond her. He led her to the bed and carefully lowered her onto it, intending to show her exactly what he couldn't bring himself to say out loud.

V.V.V.V.V.V.V

Professor Xavier looked up from the papers he was reviewing, feeling the sudden emotional surge against his personal shields. He lowered them just enough to find out what was going on before slamming them up again at full strength. Obviously Etienne and Brooke had worked out some of the problems between them. He shook his head, adding a warning about shielding to the mental list of things he needed to discuss with them later.


End file.
